The GOP Scrambles To Reckon With Trump’s Surprise IVF Announcement

Prominent Republicans are trying to figure out how to handle Donald Trump’s latest policy announcement regarding in vitro fertilization.

Over the weekend, a number of GOP leaders reacted to Trump recently announcing he’d make insurance companies cover the costly fertility treatment if he’s elected as president.

“Under the Trump administration, we are going to be paying for that treatment,” Trump said in an interview with NBC News on Thursday. “Or we’re going to be mandating that the insurance company pay.”

During a Sunday appearance on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) said he and “most” other Republicans “would be open to” making insurance companies cover IVF, which can cost anywhere between $15,000 and $30,000 per cycle. Most patients end up needing multiple rounds of IVF to conceive.

“Well, all Republicans, to my knowledge, support IVF, in the Congress. And there’s no state that prohibits or regulates IVF in a way that makes it inaccessible,” Cotton said. “It is expensive for many couples. I understand that.”

While the Arkansas legislator told moderator Kristen Welker that the Senate would still have to evaluate the fiscal impact of the policy, he said that supporting access to IVF was not “controversial at all.”

Despite Cotton’s claim most Republicans support IVF, he and a vast majority of his GOP colleagues in the Senate voted against the Right to IVF Act in June, legislation that would have protected and expanded patients’ access to the treatment.

Elsewhere on Sunday, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) shut down Trump’s IVF idea during an interview on ABC’s “This Week,” characterizing a potential mandate as a slippery slope.

When asked if he supports the Republican presidential nominee’s proposal, Graham told co-anchor Jonathan Karl, “No … no, because there’s no end to that.”

Instead, the South Carolina politician suggested that Republicans could find “common ground” with their Democratic colleagues regarding IVF, floating the idea of giving tax credits to help cover the procedure’s costs.

On Friday, Trump’s running mate, Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio), appeared evasive when asked how the proposed IVF mandate would work if certain states moved to restrict or ban the procedure.

“I think it’s such a ridiculous hypothetical,” Vance told CNN anchor John Berman, adding, “There’s no state in the union, whether a right-wing state or a left-wing state, that I think is trying to ban access to fertility treatments.”

Although Vance claimed there are no moves to ban IVF across the nation, earlier this year the Alabama Supreme Court ruled frozen embryos and fertilized eggs can be considered children, putting a de facto stop to IVF treatment in the state. (Many anti-abortion advocates oppose the treatment because embryos are often discarded during the process.)

After widespread outcry, Alabama Republicans passed a law shielding clinics and doctors from lawsuits or criminal charges related to the destruction of embryos.

In response to Trump’s new policy proposal, Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign called him out for his “flip-flops” on a number of issues, citing his evolving stances on IVF, abortion, the child tax credit, legalizing cannabis and more.

“With his back against the wall, he is suddenly pretending to be a completely different candidate, desperately attempting to memory-hole his past positions and rhetoric,” a memo from the campaign read. “It won’t work. Voters will see right through Trump’s lies over the next 66 days.”