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Donald Trump declared himself the “father of IVF” during a Fox News town hall in Cumming, Ga., on Tuesday, Oct. 15.
The former president, 78, told The Faulkner Focus host Harris Faulkner that he wanted “to talk about IVF” during the town hall. “We really are the party for IVF,” Trump said, per CNN. “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.”
Trump’s comments follow the jeapordization of fertility treatment after the Supreme Court’s 2022 decision to overturn Roe v. Wade. (In vitro fertilization “is the most effective type of fertility treatment that involves the handling of eggs or embryos and sperm,” per the Mayo Clinic.)
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Trump’s recent comments come amid the 2024 presidential campaigns’ ongoing conversations about IVF. The discussion follows the Alabama Supreme Court’s Feburary 2024 ruling that frozen embryos will now legally be considered children
Since then, in both June and September, Congressional Republicans voted to block bills that would protect the legality of IVF and insurance coverage for the fertility treatment, the latter of which Trump has stated he would support, per the New York Times.
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“Donald Trump called himself ‘the father of IVF.’ What is he talking about?” Vice President Kamala Harris reacted in a Tuesday X post (formerly known as Twitter). “His abortion bans have already jeopardized access to it in states across the country — and his own platform could end IVF altogether.”
After her initial reaction, Harris, 59, told reporters on Wednesday, Oct. 16, that Trump’s statement was “quite bizarre,” per CBS News. “What a man is taking responsibility for the fact that one in three women in America lives in a Trump abortion ban state,” she said.
“What he should take responsibility for is that couples who are praying, hoping and working toward growing a family have been so disappointed and harmed by the fact that IVF treatments have now been put at risk.”
“Let’s not be distracted by his choice of words,” she said, adding, “The reality is actually very harmful to women and families in America.”
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One reporter followed up by asking the vice president if Trump should be administered a cognitive test.
“I’m going to say what I’ve said publicly and what I’ve said many times based on my observations, Donald Trump is increasingly unstable, and as has been said by people who have worked closely with him even when he was president,” she said. “He’s unfit to be president of the United States.”
