POTTERVILLE, Mi. (Diya TV) – In a major policy shift to strengthen his voter base, former President Donald Trump promised Thursday he would provide free in vitro fertilization to all childless couples whose conception is dependent on the process if he’s elected.
The policy represents a new approach on reproductive health amid the businessman’s effort to push back on Democratic claims he and the Republican Party would ban IVF, which accounts for one in 42 conceptions nationally. Earlier in the campaign, the Trump camp signaled he would not back a national abortion ban or legislation to ban the Plan B emergency contraception pill.
The plan comes in response to growing political pressure. The use of IVF has turned increasingly contentious after the Alabama Supreme Court ruled this fall that embryos created through the procedure were human beings and could not be destroyed, putting into question the future of fertility clinics. Details about Trump’s proposal for IVF were coming Wednesday, but it seemed the plan would pass on costs to insurance companies.
The announcement by Trump comes with the intent to take the steam out of any good messaging Democrats can continue to push on reproductive rights, which have been more in the news since Vice President Kamala Harris visited an abortion clinic earlier this year. That was a first by any sitting president and vice president. Harris’s move has energized young female voters, a demographic that Trump is eager to win over in a highly competitive election.
“It’s much less aggressive than it was,” Trump said of the Democratic position on abortion. “States are voting. Ohio voted. Kansas voted. Much more liberally than people thought, but whatever, the people are voting.” He reaffirmed that decisions about abortions have moved from the federal government and now, “All the states are voting on it, and they’re getting what they want.”
Yet, Trump’s stance on IVF risks alienating the pro-life segment of his base. Even as some conservatives are sympathetic to warnings that IVF results in the destruction of fertilized eggs, other conservatives argue support for fertility treatments is a pro-life stance.
“I absolutely think it’s the insurance companies that need to cover IVF,” said Nikki Snyder, a Republican on the Michigan State Board of Education. “One can be pro-life and support fertility treatments for those trying to conceive.”
Many see Trump’s move as one aimed at appealing to suburban mothers and moderate voters. “It certainly should help him with suburban moms,” said Amber Harris, a Michigan Republican political activist. “And that’s where he needs help.”
The IVF announcement briefly took attention away from Trump’s larger message on his visit to Michigan, which was supposed to be focused on the future of the auto industry and electric vehicles. Trump went on the attack against Biden administration policies, warning that they would create U.S. auto manufacturing to make way for electric vehicle production in China.
“We’re going to bring back the car industry,” Trump said. “We’re not going to let it disappear. We’re going to bring back jobs, we’re going to bring back factories, and make Michigan very successful again. And we can do that very easily through the taxation of foreign nations.”
He also had a stark warning for autoworkers in regards to their recent contract gains. “(UAW workers) aren’t going to have raises for very long because they’re all going to be out of business,” Trump predicted, citing competition with electric cars made in China.
As Trump tries to expand his appeal, his pledge of support for IVF shows a tactical way through the complex landscape of reproductive health politics while appealing to economic issues—anxieties over jobs and the future of American manufacturing.
