Former President Donald Trump called himself the “father of IVF” in a women’s only town hall Wednesday, arguing the GOP is fully supportive of in-vitro fertilization.
“I want to talk about IVF. I’m the father of IVF, so I want to hear this question,” Trump told anchor Harris Faulkner of Fox News’ “Faulkner Focus” as a Georgia voter got ready to ask her question.
The Georgia mother of three asked the Republican nominee what his policy would be on IVF, since he wants the issue of abortion to be left to the states.
The 45th president explained that he got a call from the “fantastically attractive” Sen. Katie Britt (R-Ala.) after a judge in her state had made a ruling that some saw could have put IVF procedures in danger of being banned.
“She’s a senator, and she called me up like emergency, emergency because an Alabama judge had ruled that the IVF clinics were illegal and they have to be closed down. A judge ruled, and she said, ‘Friends of mine came up to me, and they were, oh, they were so angry,’” he said.
Trump said that the Republican Party “went totally in favor” of IVF after the Alabama ruling.
“We really are the party for IVF,” he went on.
“We want fertilization, and it’s all the way and the Democrats tried to attack us on it, and we’re out there on IVF, even more than them, so we’re totally in favor of it.”
Trump has consistently said he supports IVF and in August announced that he would made the treatment free for woman who need it.
“Under the Trump administration, your government will pay for — or your insurance company will be mandated to pay for — all costs associated with IVF treatment,” Trump announced in an interview with NBC at a Michigan rally.
“We want more babies, to put it very nicely. And for the same reason, we will also allow new parents to deduct major newborn expenses from their taxes.”
His IVF stance has gotten some blow-back from some pro-life Republicans who oppose in-vitro fertilization for the procedure’s common practice of discarding unused or unviable fertilized embryos, which some voters liken to abortion.
Alabama’s Republican state government pass a bill in March that legalized IVF treatments in the wake of the state Supreme Court ruling — but clinics said the law did not address the underlying issue about embryos.
The former president also received questions about his abortion stances during the town hall.
Trump championed the six conservative Supreme Court justices who voted to overturn Roe v. Wade and ended the national right to abortions — sending the issue back to the states.
But, he suggested that states should re-consider their tough abortion bands..
“They’re too, too tough, and those are going to be redone, because already there’s a movement in those states,” Trump said.
Vice President Kamala Harris shot back at Trump’s remarks about IVF less than an hour after the town hall went live.
“So Donald Trump, I found it to be quite bizarre. Actually, called himself the ‘Father of IVF,’ and if what he meant is taking responsibility, well, then yeah, he should take responsibility for the fact that one in three women in America lives in a Trump abortion ban state,” Harris said on her way to Air Force Two.
“What he should take responsibility for is that couples who are praying and hoping and working toward growing a family have have been so disappointed and harmed by the fact that IVF treatments have now been put at risk,” she claimed.
“What he should take responsibility for is what we’ve been seeing across the country since he hand selected three members of the United States Supreme Court, and they undid the protections of Roe v. Wade. What he should take responsibility for is that he’s been trying to take away protections against preexisting conditions for for example, women who are survivors of breast cancer.”
