Trump urges Alabama to protect IVF access after court ruling
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Donald Trump insisted that Alabama’s legislature make the procedure available.
PHOTO: REUTERS
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ALABAMA – Republican presidential front runner Donald Trump urged Alabama’s legislature to protect the availability of in-vitro fertilisation (IVF) after a state high court ruling that threatens to make it harder for people to access fertility treatments.
“Under my leadership, the Republican Party will always support the creation of strong, thriving, healthy American families. We want to make it easier for mothers and fathers to have babies, not harder! That includes supporting the availability of fertility treatments like IVF in every state in America,” Trump said in a post on his Truth Social network on Feb 23.
Trump, the former president currently waging a 2024 White House comeback campaign,
“I strongly support the availability of IVF for couples who are trying to have a precious baby. Today, I am calling on the Alabama legislature to act quickly to find an immediate solution to preserve the availability of IVF in Alabama,” he added.
Justices on Alabama’s top court last week recognised unimplanted human embryos as children, a decision that critics said will make it more difficult for people to conceive via fertility treatments.
The ruling though was seen as emboldening anti-abortion groups, who have sought to build legal support for foetal personhood.
The Alabama ruling again thrusts the US Supreme Court’s 2022 reversal of federal abortion rights
The issue has bedevilled Republicans in recent elections, as they struggle to craft a message that appeals both to their base, which backs restrictions to the procedure, and the wider public.
“American women couldn’t care less what Donald Trump posts on Truth Social, they care that they can’t access fertility treatment because of him,” President Joe Biden’s campaign manager, Ms Julie Chavez Rodriguez, said in a statement.
“Alabama families losing access to IVF is a direct result of Donald Trump’s Supreme Court justices overturning Roe versus Wade.”
Polls show most Americans believe abortion should be legal in all or most cases.
Democrats have sought to keep abortion rights centred before the electorate to galvanise their base and woo independents with a little over eight months until the presidential election.
Trump’s comments came a day before the South Carolina primary, where he is looking to deliver a devastating defeat to his last major challenger for the nomination, Mrs Nikki Haley, in her home state.
Mrs Haley earlier this week said she considered frozen embryos created through IVF “babies”, but added that did not mean to say she agreed with the Alabama ruling.
“Our goal is to always do what the parents want with their embryo,” Mrs Haley said.
“So any physician that is in control of those embryos, they owe it to those people, to make sure they protect that embryo and that they do with that embryo what those parents want done with that embryo.”
For Trump, abortion is a politically perilous issue.
He faces a litany of court cases, including four indictments with some 91 felony counts.
He was recently hit with about US$540 million (S$725 million) in fines defamation trial brought by writer E. Jean Carroll
Nevertheless, the party largely rallied around him, bolstering his bid for the nomination, and he maintains ardent support from evangelicals.
That relationship, though, showed brief signs of strain when Trump blamed the overturning of Roe for the party’s dismal midterm showing.
In a speech on the night of Feb 22 to evangelical broadcasters, Trump took credit for curtailing federal abortion rights, noting his appointment of three conservative justices to the US Supreme Court.
But he still stopped short of saying whether he would support further restrictions if he wins a second term.
Trump has long backed allowing exceptions for rape, incest and to protect the life of the mother, and has been telling allies that he supports a 16-week abortion ban.
Mr Biden’s campaign has assailed Trump, saying that he is endorsing a “nationwide ban” on abortion.
A 16-week ban, though, is less restrictive than measures favoured by much of the Republican Party.
Many Republican states after the reversal of Roe versus Wade instituted tougher laws, including bans on abortion after six weeks – a timeframe before many women even know they are pregnant.
Mrs Haley, who has said that her son was conceived via artificial insemination, has called herself “unapologetically pro-life” but during Republican debates in 2023 downplayed the idea of a federal ban. BLOOMBERG
