POTTERVILLE, Mich. — Former President Donald Trump said in an interview with NBC News on Thursday that if he is elected, his administration would not only protect access to in-vitro fertilization but would also have either the government or insurance companies cover the cost of the expensive service for American women who need it.
"We are going to be, under the Trump administration, we are going to be paying for that treatment," Trump said before adding, "We're going to be mandating that the insurance company pay."
Asked to clarify whether the government would pay for IVF services or whether insurance companies would do so, Trump reiterated that one option would be to have insurance companies pay "under a mandate, yes."
Abortion and IVF have been political liabilities for the GOP this year. Democrats have blasted Republicans over IVF in recent months, saying GOP-led restrictions on abortion could lead to restrictions on IVF, as well.
In a statement, Sarafina Chitika, a spokesperson for Vice President Kamala Harris' campaign, said that "Donald Trump’s own platform could effectively ban IVF and abortion nationwide" and that "because Trump overturned Roe v. Wade, IVF is already under attack and women’s freedoms have been ripped away in states across the country. There is only one candidate in this race who trusts women and will protect our freedom to make our own health care decisions: Vice President Kamala Harris.”
The statement refers to the GOP platform's language about the 14th Amendment in its section on abortion policy: "We believe that the 14th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States guarantees that no person can be denied Life or Liberty without Due Process, and that the States are, therefore, free to pass Laws protecting those Rights." The platform later says specifically that the party will support "mothers and policies that advance ... IVF." The Alabama state Supreme Court ruled this year that embryos created via IVF were to be considered people, a move that led the largest fertility clinics in the state to pause their IVF care.
Trump’s stance could put him at odds with anti-abortion-rights advocates who oppose certain parts of the IVF process that involve discarding unused embryos.
Currently, few people have insurance plans that cover fertility treatments like IVF, leaving many couples to pay out of pocket for the treatment’s high costs. The Department of Health and Human Services estimates the cost per patient for one cycle of IVF at $20,000.
The Society for Assisted Reproductive Technology says its member clinics performed 389,993 IVF cycles in 2022. At a cost of around $20,000 apiece, that would come to $7.8 billion for that one year.
A growing number of employers have begun to offer fertility benefits over the last decade, however. Some pay for fixed amounts of patients’ costs, while others have lifetime maximums of particular numbers of cycles.
Sen. JD Vance of Ohio, Trump's running mate, spoke in a recent, separate NBC News interview about his "frustration that reproductive rights is a whole suite of pro-family things that Republicans are way better at than Democrats. And the media always focus on abortion. But, you know, we’ve actually done a lot of things to try to promote fertility treatments to people who are struggling with it."
Trump’s stance on IVF is the latest instance of his addressing criticism of his presidential administration through 2024 campaign policy proposals. After Democrats complained that his 2017 tax plan favored the wealthy, he announced that if he is elected again, he would eliminate taxes on tips for service workers.
Now, as he and other Republicans face criticism for supporting the Supreme Court justices who struck down Roe, Trump is proposing to protect IVF and address its costs.
Trump didn't explicitly say in the interview how we would vote on a ballot measure in his home state, Florida, that would guarantee a right to abortion until fetal viability, which is around 24 weeks of pregnancy. He repeated his criticism that Florida’s current six-week limit on abortion, which was signed by Gov. Ron DeSantis, is “too short.” Trump added, “It has to be more time.”
Pressed about how he will vote in November, he said, “I am going to be voting that we need more than six weeks.”
In response to questions from NBC News clarifying what that statement meant about how Trump would vote on the Florida ballot measure, senior adviser Jason Miller said Trump hasn't yet revealed whether he'll support the amendment.
Trump has long gone back and forth on abortion before he arrived at his current position that the issue should be up to the states.As president, before Roe v. Wade was overturned, he once urged the Senate to pass a 20-week ban on abortion. After he left office, he celebrated the Supreme Court's decision to overturn Roe and the national right to abortion, at one point going as far as to say, "I was able to kill Roe v. Wade," in a social media post.
But as the presidential race has taken shape this year, he has inched further away from other Republicans on the issue, especially as abortion has emerged as a key issue for Harris and her allies.
In a speech at the Democratic convention last week, Harris said Trump and Vance were "out of their minds" and accused them of planning to "ban medication abortion and enact a nationwide abortion."
In the interview, Trump said about abortion policy that “exceptions are very important for me,” adding later, “I believe in exceptions for life of the mother ... incest, rape.”
Trump also pushed back Thursday on criticism of his visit to Arlington National Cemetery on Monday, saying a family “asked me whether or not I would stand for a picture at the grave of their loved one who should not have died.”
He said he didn't initiate the photo, adding: "While I was there, I didn’t ask for a picture. While I was there, they said, 'Sir, could we have a picture at the grave?'"
Trump's campaign has faced criticism this week after reports emerged that a member of Trump’s staff“abruptly pushed aside” a cemetery staff memberwho tried to prevent Trump and others from taking photo and videos in Section 60 of the cemetery in the Virginia suburbs of Washington, where service members killed in Iraq and Afghanistan are buried and where filming is typically prohibited.
Trump also blasted Harris on immigration and border security, reprising his usual language about the increased number of migrants entering the country in recent years.
"Our country is going to hell. We’ve never been in a position like this," he said, adding: "There’s never been a country that’s been invaded like we have been invaded. And I think that alone loses them the election."
