Trump calls for universal coverage of IVF treatment

By Associated Press

POTTERVILLE, Mich. — Former President Donald Trump says that, if he wins a second term, he wants to make IVF treatment free for women, but did not detail how he would fund his plan or how it would work.

“I’m announcing today in a major statement 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,” he said at an event in Michigan. “Because we want more babies, to put it nicely.”

IVF treatments are notoriously expensive, and can cost tens of thousands of dollars for a single round. Many women require multiple rounds and there is no guarantee of success.

The announcement comes as Trump has been under intense criticism from Democrats for his role in appointing the Supreme Court justices who overturned Roe v. Wade, ending the constitutional right to an abortion in the country.

The decision is expected to be a major motivator for Democrats this November, and was a major theme of the party’s national convention last week as well as Vice President Kamala Harris’ speech as she accepted her party’s nomination.

In response, Trump has been trying to present himself as moderate on the issue, going as far as to declare himself as “very strong on women’s reproductive rights.”

In an interview with NBC ahead of the event, Trump also suggested that he will vote to repeal Florida’s six-week abortion ban, which limits the procedure before many women even know they are pregnant.

Trump, in the interview, did not explicitly say how he plans to vote on the ballot measure when he casts his vote this fall. But he repeated his past criticism that the measure, signed into law by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis last year, is too restrictive.

“I think the six weeks is too short. It has to be more time,’ he said. “I am going to be voting that we need more than six weeks.”

Trump had previously called DeSantis’ decision to sign the bill a “terrible mistake.”

Trump has held multiple conflicting positions on abortion over the years. After he considered various potential national cutoff times, he decided earlier this year that regulating abortion should be left to the states.

He has repeatedly taken credit for his role in overturning Roe and called it “a beautiful thing to watch” as states set their own restrictions. But he also came out in favor of IVF and pushed lawmakers in Alabama to protect access after the state Supreme Court ruled that frozen embryos can be considered children under state law, sparking national backlash.

Trump’s running mate, Ohio Sen. JD Vance, said over the weekend that Trump would not support a national abortion ban if elected president and would veto such legislation if it landed on his desk.

“I can absolutely commit that,” Vance said when asked on NBC’s “Meet the Press” whether he could commit to Trump not imposing such a ban. “Donald Trump’s view is that we want the individual states and their individual cultures and their unique political sensibilities to make these decisions because we don’t want to have a nonstop federal conflict over this issue.”

The Ohio senator also insisted that Trump, the former president would veto such legislation if Congress passed it.

“I mean, if you’re not supporting it as the president of the United States, you fundamentally have to veto it,” he said in an interview that aired Sunday.

An AP-NORC poll conducted in June found that more than 6 in 10 U.S. adults support protecting access to IVF, including more than half of Republicans. Only about 1 in 10 are opposed.

In his speech, Trump also said that, if he wins, families will be able to deduct expenses for caring for newborns from their taxes.

“We’re pro-family,” he said.

Trump made the announcement while campaigning in Michigan and Wisconsin as he ramps up his battleground state travel heading into the traditional Labor Day turn toward the fall election.

Trump is intensely focused on recapturing states he won in 2016 but lost narrowly in 2020 as he continues to adjust to the reality of his new race against Harris.

Trump’s first stop was Potterville, Michigan, near the state capital of Lansing, where he railed against the Biden administration over inflation in the most dramatic terms, accusing Harris and President Joe Biden of having presided over “an economic reign of terror” and “committing one financial atrocity after another.”

“Kamala has made middle class life unaffordable and unlivable and I’m going to make America affordable again,” he vowed to supporters at Alro Steel.

It was his third visit to the state in the past nine days and second this week after a speech to the National Guard Association in Detroit on Monday.

Later, he will visit La Crosse, Wisconsin, for a town hall moderated by former Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, who endorsed him in Detroit. It will be Trump’s first visit to Wisconsin since the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, which ended three days before Biden dropped out of the race and made way for Harris.

Along with Pennsylvania, which Trump will visit on Friday, these three Midwestern states make up a northern industrial bloc Democrats carried for two decades before Trump won them in 2016. Biden recaptured them on his way to the White House in 2020.

Trump and his vice-presidential pick, Ohio Sen. JD Vance, have blitzed the battleground states in recent weeks, with Vance in both states this week as well.

Trump has struggled in recent weeks to pivot to his new race against Harris, whose candidacy has reinvigorated the Democratic Party.

He complained yet again of the switch on Thursday, asking his crowd. “How would you like to be me?”