The crew at MSNBC's "Morning Joe" program was agog Friday following Donald Trump's startling new plan to arrange government or mandated insurance coverage for the high cost of in vitro fertilization, and characterizing the promise as a message from the former president alerting voters: "I'm Very Frightened."
"Look, I mean, for millions of American families, IVF stands for in vitro fertilization. For Donald Trump right now, it stands for, 'I'm very frightened," Ink publisher Anand Giridharadas quipped to host Willie Geist.
After Trump's "your body my choice" position on women's reproductive rights, he's apparently scrambling for female votes.
He's now "something we don't normally see: scared, defensive. He's on his back foot," said Giridharadas.
Princeton University Professor Eddie Claude Jr. noted that Trump and Republicans are stuck now that they have abortion bans that have long been a campaign issue.
"They're the dog that caught the car," killing abortion rights, and "now they trying to figure out 'what the hell do we do now that we have our teeth in the tires?'" he added.
IVF has been opposed by Trump's running mate JD Vance, as well as many evangelicals, who are a key block of Trump supporters, because some embryos are discarded during the process. That opposition has triggered fears by parents who can't conceive without the fertility treatment.
In addition, Giridharadas also argued that Americans are worried about where the Supreme Court's decision to overturn national abortion rights in Roe v. Wade will lead to, including a potential Republican ban on IVF and contraception.
"What happened with IVF is illuminating," Giridharadas said. "I think it was the American people starting to realize that these things never stop with the initial thing, right? IVF was sort of falling down the slippery slope from Dobbs [which toppled Roe]. You first come for abortion, and then there were murmurs of IVF."
Trump announced his plan Thursday at a Michigan campaign event, but did not provide details about how the price of IVF, which can cost thousands of dollars, would be covered.
It's the latests instance of Trump appearing to waffle on his positions against reproductive rights, which are unpopular with female voters.
On Wednesday he suddenly vowed to fight for abortion rights in Florida, where the issue is on the ballot this November.
"I'm going to be voting that we need more than six weeks," he told NBC News in an interview. He also said abortion should be allow in cases of rape and incest, and to save the life of the mother.
Trump, however, has recently crowed that his appointments to the Supreme Court killed Roe v. Wade and national abortion rights. He has also falsely claimed that "everyone" supported the end of Roe v. Wade (a majority of Americans wanted the decision preserved).
"I'm the one that got rid of Roe v. Wade," Trump once boasted in a Newsmax interview.
Trump: I’m the one that got rid of Roe V Wade pic.twitter.com/o24OhRNqV7
— Acyn (@Acyn) May 16, 2023
He also also said just last year that he should be celebrated for every state abortion ban in the nation, apparently including those with no exceptions and six-week limits.
Trump's campaign insisted after the Florida abortion comment that he has not yet decided how he will vote.
Senate Republicans — including Trump's own running mate— almost unanimously voted against a bill in June that would have protected IVF access across the country.
An Alabama Supreme Court decision earlier this year temporarily cut off access to IVF by defining embryos as "children" until state lawmakers intervened.
