Former President Trump in a Fox News town hall that aired Wednesday called himself the “father of IVF,” seeking to claim credit as a defender of the fertility treatment that conservative Supreme Court justices threw into uncertainty by overturning Roe v. Wade.
Trump sat for a town hall with Georgia women, who asked about his positions on abortion access and in vitro fertilization (IVF), two areas where Democrats have gone on offense in the wake of the Roe ruling in 2022.
“I want to talk about IVF. I’m the father of IVF, so I want to hear this question,” he said before one woman spoke.
Asked by a participant about his stance on IVF, Trump explained that he got a call from Sen. Katie Britt (R-Ala.) — whom he called “a fantastically attractive person from Alabama” — after an Alabama court ruling earlier this year that decided frozen embryos are people, prompting IVF clinics in the state to pause services.
“She said, ‘I was attacked. In a certain way I was attacked.’ I said, ‘Explain IVF very quickly.’ And within about two minutes I understood it,” Trump said. “I said, ‘No, no. We’re totally in favor of IVF.’ I came out with a statement within an hour. A really powerful statement … and we went totally in favor. The Republican Party, the whole party.”
Vice President Harris, the Democratic nominee in November’s election, called Trump’s comments “quite bizarre” when asked about them during campaign travel on Wednesday.
“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. “What he should take responsibility for is that couples who are praying and 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.
“So let’s not be distracted by his choice of words,” she added. “The reality is, his actions have been very harmful to women and families in America on this issue.”
“Donald Trump called himself ‘the father of IVF.’ What is he talking about?” Harris posted on social platform X. “His abortion bans have already jeopardized access to it in states across the country—and his own platform could end IVF altogether.”
Polling has shown Trump struggling to win over women, in part because of the issue of reproductive rights. A Marist poll published Wednesday showed Harris leading him among female voters, 57 percent to 42 percent.
Trump has sought to position himself as a defender of fertility treatments as Democrats have repeatedly blamed him and his appointed Supreme Court justices for jeopardizing the procedure in the first place. The former president has proposed having the government cover the cost of IVF, something even his GOP allies have voiced skepticism about.
Republicans last month blocked a bill that would have created a right to access IVF treatments and mandated that insurance plans cover the practice, deriding the vote as a political ploy.
During the town hall, which aired on “The Faulkner Focus,” Trump was also asked about government involvement in abortion access from a woman who argued they are “entitled to do what they want to and need to do with their bodies, including their unborn.”
Trump repeated what has become a standard talking point for him, arguing that abortion is an issue best left up to the states and that it would allow for voters to weigh in and set policy on access or restrictions on the procedure.
“Honestly, some of them are going much more liberal,” Trump said.
“Some of them are not,” Fox moderator Harris Faulkner noted.
“Some of them are not, but it’s going to be redone,” Trump said. “You end up with a vote of the people. Some of them I agree, they’re too tough. And those are going to be redone.”
Reproductive rights have been front and center politically in the two years since the conservative Supreme Court majority ended Roe, with some states enshrining abortion rights and others enacting restrictive laws that effectively ban the procedure.
Trump has simultaneously bragged about securing the end of Roe and taken the position that abortion policy should be left up to the states through legislation or ballot referendums as GOP-led states enact restrictive policies.
But that has prompted attacks, including from some on the right who expressed disappointment the former president was not embracing a federal minimum standard for abortion.
Updated at 1:27 p.m.