Donald Trump has declared himself a “leader” on in vitro fertilization (IVF)—a stance that could lose him the backing of anti-abortion supporters who oppose the procedure.
“I have been a leader on IVF, which is fertilization,” Trump said during a debate against Vice President Kamala Harris. “I’ve been a leader on it. They know that and everybody else knows it.”
During the debate, Harris underscored Trump’s role in the Supreme Court‘s overturning of the national right to abortion two years ago, saying that bans enacted since then were delaying families’ access to IVF treatments. Abortion and reproductive rights are a central issue in November’s election, with Democrats warning that Trump would push forward with restrictions on reproductive health care if he wins a second term.
Trump has sought to deflect such attacks and appear more moderate on abortion, warning that extreme stances could cost Republicans at the ballot box even as he has repeatedly taken credit for appointing the three Supreme Court justices who overturned Roe v. Wade. That decision resulted in abortion restrictions across Republican-led states, including proposals that threatened access to IVF.
IVF came into the spotlight when the Alabama Supreme Court ruled in February that frozen embryos created through IVF can be considered children under state law, leading to warnings about the potential impact on fertility treatments and the freezing of embryos and causing some fertility clinics in the state to stop treatments.
Trump noted in the debate that he had condemned the ruling and urged Alabama lawmakers to find a solution to preserve access to IVF. The legislature rushed to pass a bill providing legal protections for the clinics.
Last month, Trump pledged to make IVF treatment free for women if he wins a second term. “Because we want more babies, to put it nicely,” he said at an event in August, without detailing how the plan would work, or how it would be funded.
Despite Trump’s support for IVF protections, Republicans on Tuesday blocked for a second time this year legislation that would establish a nationwide right to IVF.
Trump campaign press secretary Karoline Leavitt told Newsweek: “President Trump has long been consistent in supporting the rights of states to make decisions on abortion and has been very clear that he will NOT sign a federal ban when he is back in the White House.”
He “supports universal access to contraception and IVF,” she said.
Trump’s shifting position has frustrated anti-abortion supporters who want a national abortion ban—and his position on IVF, which some oppose because the process typically involves discarding unused embryos, risks alienating them further.
“Though public coverage or a health insurance mandate for IVF would be bad policy for a host of practical reasons, we’d encourage President Trump to consider the moral catastrophe of the deliberate destruction of human embryos that very often attends the procedure,” Steven Aden, the chief legal officer and general counsel at Americans United for Life, told Newsweek.
Kristi Hamrick, of Students for Life of America, told Newsweek: “On IVF, we urge caution and hope that politicians slow down to understand the issue before making promises and offering protections and taxpayer funds to the wrong parties.”
Marjorie Dannenfelser, the president of SBA Pro-Life America, told Newsweek the group “supports the growth of families through fertility treatments, but in an ethical way, with strong medical safety standards that are upheld.”
Dannenfelser added: “We believe human embryos should not be needlessly destroyed. All too often, proposals on this issue go too far by giving blanket immunity to IVF clinics – even for rogue practitioners who switch human embryos, fail to follow basic safety standards, or negligently destroy human embryos desired by infertile couples. These are real scenarios for which families in America will have no recourse.”
