‘American women are not stupid.’ Warren and the Harris campaign reacted to Trump’s campaign promise to require the government or insurance companies to pay for IVF services.
The Harris campaign – joined by Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts – on Friday slammed former President Donald Trump as a threat to in vitro fertilization access after he proposed the government or insurance companies to cover the cost of the services.
“We are going to be, under the Trump administration, we are going to be paying for that treatment,” Trump told NBC News on Thursday. “We’re going to be mandating that the insurance company pay.”
Trump did not offer details for the idea. His plan comes after Republicans have struggled to pinpoint a stance on IVF in the fallout of an Alabama Supreme Court ruling in February that frozen embryos created through IVF are considered children under state law. The ruling, which led to a law being passed in the state to solidify protections for IVF providers and patients, raised concerns about legal repercussions against someone who discards embryos that were created during IVF but not implanted.
It also led to a legislative push from Democrats to protect access to IVF, with Senate Republicans blocking a measure that would make it a right nationwide for women to access IVF and other fertility treatments.
Trump’s new proposal caught the attention of the Harris campaign, which has made reproductive rights a main focus as it hopes the issue will increase voter turnout in November. The campaign on Friday announced a “Fighting for Reproductive Freedom” bus tour that will cover battleground states and kick off in Palm Beach, Florida, on Tuesday.
“Our campaign is hitting the road to meet voters in their communities, underscore the stakes of this election for reproductive freedom, and present them with the Harris-Walz ticket’s vision to move our country forward, which stands in stark contrast to Donald Trump’s plans to drag us back,” Harris-Walz Campaign Manager Julie Chavez Rodriguez said in a statement.
The campaign also held a call with Warren on Friday to draw attention to Trump’s past when it comes to reproductive rights, including the overturning of Roe v. Wade, which he has taken credit for.
“It was Donald Trump who opened the door for any extremist judge or extremist state legislature to ban IVF,” Warren said. “Without legal protection for abortion and IVF, Trump’s latest campaign promise is just smoke and mirrors.”
Warren pointed out that Trump’s running mate, Sen. JD Vance of Ohio, voted against the legislation to establish a national right to IVF.
“American women are not stupid, and we know the only guaranteed protection for IVF is a new national law, which Kamala Harris supports and Donald Trump opposes,” Warren said. “Anyone who cares about IVF will support Kamala Harris for president and Democrats for Congress.”
Trump hasn’t always been clear about his stances on reproductive rights, including abortion. As president, Trump supported a 20-week national abortion ban, but he has since declined to support a federal ban, saying the policy is up to the states.
Also on Thursday, he criticized Florida’s ban on most abortions after six weeks. The state, where Trump resides, will have a proposed constitutional amendment on the ballot in November that would preserve the right to abortion in the state constitution and protect abortion until viability, about 24 weeks of pregnancy.
“I think the six-week [ban] is too short. There has to be more time,” Trump told NBC News. “I am going to be voting that we need more than six weeks.”
However, Trump’s campaign said that he hasn’t decided how to vote on the proposal.
Karoline Leavitt, the Trump campaign’s press secretary, said in a statement that Trump “has not yet said how he will vote on the ballot initiative in Florida, he simply reiterated that he believes six weeks is too short.”
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