By Gregory Krieg and Kate Sullivan, CNN
Donald Trump. File photo Photo: AFP
Donald Trump has declared himself the "father of IVF", a fertility treatment that has come under threat following the US Supreme Court's 2022 decision to overturn Roe v Wade.
It is unclear what precisely the former president meant when he made the comment at a Fox News town hall in battleground Georgia that was billed as focusing on women's issues and had an all-female audience. But he has repeatedly returned to the issue - talking up his support for IVF - on the campaign trail, where he has given a long series of confusing or contradictory answers about his stance on abortion.
"We really are the party for IVF," Trump told moderator and Fox News host Harris Faulkner on "The Faulkner Focus." "We want fertilisation, 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."
In vitro fertilisation, an expensive, decades-old treatment used by millions of parents, became a flashpoint in the nationwide clash over abortion and reproductive rights earlier this year when Alabama's Supreme Court said that frozen embryos are children and those who destroy them can be held liable for wrongful death.
The Alabama ruling infuriated reproductive rights advocates who reasoned it would have a chilling effect on IVF, scaring off doctors who perform the procedure and sending prices even higher. It also set off a political firestorm that ultimately sent the state's Republican-led legislature scrambling to pass a bill giving civil and criminal immunity to providers and patients.
Trump and Republicans quickly distanced themselves from the Alabama case, but Democrats, led by vice president Kamala Harris' campaign, have argued that the ruling offered a preview of the policies Trump would seek to enact if he returned to the White House.
"Donald Trump called himself 'the father of IVF.' What is he talking about?" the vice president posted on social media. "His abortion bans have already jeopardised access to it in states across the country - and his own platform could end IVF altogether."
Speaking to reporters, Harris said she found Trump's comments to be "bizarre" and said he should instead be taking responsibility for the climate around abortion rights in the US.
"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, he's unfit to be president of the United States," she said.
In the aftermath of the Alabama decision, Trump claimed he would enact a federal policy making IVF free of charge. He did not say how he would go about doing so or whether the government or insurers would foot the bill.
Senate Democrats, keen to highlight the issue ahead of the election, have twice this year brought up a bill that would guarantee access to IVF nationwide - with Republicans voting to block the measure each time. Many of those GOP opponents have said they do support IVF but criticized the legislation as unnecessary overreach and a political show vote.
During the town hall, Trump also criticised some states for placing restrictions on abortion that he called "too tough," saying, without providing any details, that those laws are "going to be redone."
"The states are now voting (on abortion rights), and honestly, some of them are going much more liberal, like in Ohio," Trump said.
Faulkner then noted that "some of (the states) are not," referring to the states that enacted or activated bans or restrictions on the procedure after Roe was overturned in 2022 and where those limits remain in place.
"And some of them are not, but it's going to be redone," Trump replied. "It's going to be redone. They're going to, you're going to end up with a vote of the people. And some of them, I agree, they're too tough, too tough."
Still, Trump again touted his role in appointing Supreme Court justices who struck down Roe v Wade and argued that the issue should be left to the states to legislate. He also expressed support for exceptions to abortion bans in the case of rape, incest and when the life of the mother is in danger.
After previously refusing to commit either way, Trump earlier this month said he would veto a federal abortion ban. His running mate, Ohio Senator JD Vance, during his vice presidential debate with Minnesota Govenor Tim Walz, acknowledged the GOP's difficulties navigating the issue - suggesting his party push new legislation to help parents in need.
"We've got to do so much better of a job at earning the American people's trust back on this issue, where they frankly just don't trust us," Vance said.
Two-thirds of Americans oppose the Supreme Court's decision, according to a Marquette Law School poll conducted this summer.
- CNN