Updated August 30, 2024 at 13:27 PM ET
Former President Donald Trump said Thursday that if he's elected again, his administration would fund in vitro fertilization treatments.
“I was always for IVF. Right from the beginning, as soon as we heard about it,” the Republican nominee said in an interview with NBC News in Michigan.
Trump told NBC he’d support public funding for in vitro fertilization, or a mandate requiring insurance companies to cover it. He reiterated the proposal during a town hall in La Crosse, Wisc. Thursday evening, but he did not provide any details on how the plan would work.
The procedure to treat infertility can cost tens of thousands of dollars.
“We’re doing this because we just think it’s great. And we need great children, beautiful children in our country, we actually need them,” Trump told NBC.
Some anti-abortion activists want to restrict or ban IVF because the process typically involves discarding excess embryos. But most voters, including many Republicans, support access to the procedure.
An Alabama Supreme Court decision earlier this year temporarily cut off access to IVF until state lawmakers intervened, forcing many high-profile Republicans to weigh in on the issue.
Trump’s comments come as he appears to be trying to soften his image on reproductive rights ahead of the November election over concerns about voter backlash. Abortion is expected to be a key issue in the election, with Democrats warning voters that Republicans would further restrict access to reproductive healthcare if former Trump is elected.
Trump has repeatedly, and proudly, taken credit for the Supreme court overturning Roe v. Wade, after he appointed three conservative justices to the court. But last week, Trump wrote on Truth Social that he would be “great for women and their reproductive rights.”
That statement drew criticism from some abortion rights opponents including his former vice president, Mike Pence. Trump also recently indicated in a CBS News interview that he would not use a 19th-century anti-obscenity law, the Comstock Act, to restrict abortion pills. That statement also drew pushback from some activists.
The Harris-Walz campaign responded to Trump's IVF comments, saying in a statement that "Because Trump overturned Roe v. Wade, IVF is already under attack and women’s freedoms have been ripped away in states across the country."
"There is only one candidate in this race who trusts women and will protect our freedom to make our own health care decisions: Vice President Kamala Harris," the statement from spokesperson Sarafina Chitika said.
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