Did Donald Trump just promise free IVF to gay couples?

Former president Donald J. Trump smiles while delivering remarks on Sept. 12, 2024, at Tucson Music Hall in Tucson, Ariz. Photo: Owen Ziliak/The Republic / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

On Wednesday, Donald Trump’s campaign claimed that the former president would provide “universal access” to IVF treatment, dangling the prospect of coverage for the expensive fertility treatment for gay people looking to start a family.

“President Trump has long been consistent in supporting the rights of states to make decisions on abortion and has been very clear that he will NOT sign a federal ban when he is back in the White House. President Trump also supports universal access to contraception and IVF,” campaign press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement.

Trump told NBC News last month that he would order the government or insurance companies to cover the cost of IVF “for all Americans that want it, all Americans that need it.”

“We are going to be, under the Trump administration, we are going to be paying for that treatment,” the Republican nominee claimed, adding, “We’re going to be mandating that the insurance company pay.”

The Harris-Walz campaign isn’t buying the IVF pledge.

“Donald Trump’s own platform — listed publicly on his website — could effectively ban IVF. As President, he appointed an anti-IVF extremist to the federal bench, proposed a rule to allow health care workers to deny IVF to LGBTQ couples, and hosted the Alabama judge who banned IVF at the White House,” said out senior campaign spokesperson for Harris-Walz Kevin Munoz.

“Trump lies as much if not more than he breathes, but voters aren’t stupid,” Munoz added. “There is only one candidate in this race who will protect Americans’ freedoms to make our own health care decisions: Vice President Kamala Harris.”

The Trump campaign didn’t respond when asked specifically if the president’s promise would cover IVF for LGBTQ+ Americans.

The twice-impeached president’s IVF pitch last month took both his campaign and Republican allies in Congress by surprise. Several MAGA members of Congress said they wouldn’t support legislation opening access to the treatment.

“I’m against health care for all, and I don’t support a plan right now to just pay for IVF,” said Trump loyalist Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA). “I think that’s opening up a door that Republicans aren’t willing to open. I’m not for government-mandated funding of IVF.”

Trump’s own running mate, embattled Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH), has praised “admirable” anti-IVF laws.

One of Trump’s last vindictive acts as president in January 2021 was ending discrimination protections for LGBTQ+ people looking to adopt. The Biden administration later reversed the rule.

The Republican nominee has consistently invoked trans hysteria in his bid for a second term in the White House, vowing to abolish gender-affirming care for transgender minors, which he describes as “child abuse” and “child sexual mutilation, and to eliminate Title IX protections for trans students “on day one” if he’s re-elected.

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Originally published here.