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Donald Trump has claimed that his administration will force insurance companies or the federal government to cover the costs of in vitro fertilization (IVF) for all Americans - after Democrats have sought to tie him to anti-abortion groups that want to ban the fertility procedure.
Trump made the claim at his rally in Pottersville, Michigan on Thursday afternoon. The announcement served as his first real volley at the Democrats in response to months’ worth of attacks from the White House and the Harris, formerly Biden, campaign.
It was a bold campaign pledge from the Republican candidate that would require legislation through Congress to enact - and one that would likely face opposition from conservatives if attempted.
Democrats have sought to link Trump to the extremes of the anti-abortion right, given his fondness for taking credit for the Supreme Court’s decision in overturning Roe vs Wade, which affirmed the constitutional right to abortion care.
In the wake of Roe’s fall, there has been repeated attacks on fertility care by conservatives. Earlier this year, a decision by the highest court in Alabama briefly put IVF treatments on hold in that state. Anti-abortion groups that Trump has courted during his three presidential runs have long opposed the practice.
But at his Michigan rally on Thursday, Trump said: “I am announcing today that under the Trump administration, your government will pay for or your insurance company will be mandated to pay for all costs associated with IVF treatment.”
“We want more babies!” he added at the event, which was billed as an address primarily about energy prices and manufacturing.
🚨 NEW POLICY ALERT 🚨
— Trump War Room (@TrumpWarRoom) August 29, 2024
"I am announcing today that under the Trump administration, your government will pay for or your insurance company will be mandated to pay for all costs associated with IVF treatment."
"We want more babies!" pic.twitter.com/ZtsGkNUdl6
The former president made the same pledge in an interview with NBC News, recorded moments before he took the stage in Pottersville. But he appeared unclear on whether he’d seek the federal government or insurance companies to cover the costs.
“We are going to be, under the Trump administration, we are going to be paying for that treatment,” he told NBC News. “We’re going to be mandating that the insurance company pay.”
In that interview, he also criticized Florida’s six-week ban on abortion, a clear attack on rival-turned-ally Ron DeSantis, the state’s governor.
“I think the six week [ban] is too short, there has to be more time,” Trump told NBC.
While Trump continues to proclaim himself an ally of IVF, and says he opposes an effort to ban abortion at the federal level, his allies continuously undermine his message. Republican House member Matt Rosendale called IVF “morally wrong” in June, while Senator Lindsey Graham is trying to get a national abortion ban passed in the upper chamber of Congress.
Project 2025, the blueprint drawn up by a number of conservative groups tied to former Trump officials, has also complicated the Republican candidate’s efforts to distance himself from the furthest extremes of the anti-abortion movement.
The plan calls for the abolition of FDA approval for over-the-counter sales of Mifepristone, an abortion drug, as well as restrictions on sending Mifepristone through the mail. Project 2025 also calls for efforts to track women who cross state lines to seek abortion care if leaving states where it is illegal to do so. It could also lead to the banning of IVF and abortion as a whole through other means — namely, by calling for a conservative-led legal push for personhood rights to be extended to unborn fetuses.
Trump’s new IVF policy suggestion is somewhat out of whack with the free market-oriented mindset which has governed Republicans in Washington when it comes to healthcare.
Fiscal conservatives opposed efforts by the Obama administration to force healthcare companies to offer coverage to Americans with pre-existing conditions, and under the first Trump administration sought to repeal the Affordable Care Act. Democrats argued at the time that Republicans were willing to throw millions off of their insurance plans by allowing companies to once again drop Americans with pre-existing conditions.
Trump’s 2024 campaign has made little to no mention of seeking another repeal of Obamacare, and if passed into law, Trump’s IVF plan would further expand the breadth of coverage that health insurance companies would be required to support.
