Donald Trump’s presidential campaign told NBC News on Wednesday that if the former president were re-elected, his administration would support “universal access” to in-vitro fertilization, potentially opening up the door for same-sex couples to receive coverage for the expensive fertility treatment.
“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.
The Republican presidential nominee told NBC News last month that if he is re-elected in November, his administration would have either the government or insurance companies 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,” Trump said, adding, “We’re going to be mandating that the insurance company pay.”
Wednesday’s statement from his campaign came in response to a follow-up question on whether that included access for same-sex couples.
Leavitt added, “Contrarily, Kamala Harris and the Democrats are radically out of touch with the majority of Americans in their support for abortion up until birth and forcing taxpayers to fund it.”
The Trump campaign did not respond to an additional email asking whether Trump would support the government paying for or mandating that insurance companies cover IVF for same-sex couples.
Since Trump made his IVF announcement last month, there’s been very little follow-up from his campaign, and officials have offered no specifics on how he would make it happen. A person close to his campaign who was familiar with the strategy said Trump’s comments were “unexpected,” surprising even many of his advisers. Similarly, his Republicans allies in Congress said they were puzzled by the policy, with some saying they were outright opposed to it.
When asked about Trump’s IVF remarks and the campaign’s claim that Democrats support “abortion up until birth,” Kevin Munoz, a spokesperson for the Harris-Walz campaign, said: “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 White House.”
Munoz added: “Trump lies as much if not more than he breathes, but voters aren’t stupid. There is only one candidate in this race who will protect Americans’ freedoms to make our own health care decisions: Vice President Kamala Harris.”
Munoz did not address the Trump campaign’s abortion claims. (Less than 1% of all abortions occur after 21 weeks of pregnancy, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.)
Trump’s vice presidential pick, Sen. JD Vance, of Ohio, voted in June against Democratic legislation to protect IVF. Vance was campaigning last week and missed a Senate vote for the same bill.
In January 2021, the Department of Health and Human Services under the Trump administration finalized a rule that ended discrimination protections for LGBTQ people, opening the door for tax-payer funded adoption agencies to bar same-sex couples from adopting. The Biden administration later reversed the rule.
Many of Trump’s campaign promises regarding LGBTQ issues center on transgender people. On the campaign trail, he’s vowed to abolish gender-affirming care for transgender minors — which he equated to “child abuse” and “child sexual mutilation — and roll back Title IX protections for transgender students “on day one” if he’s re-elected.
Conversely, the former president seldom mentions gay, lesbian and bisexual Americans in his stump speeches.
Only seven states — including Colorado, Delaware, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, New Jersey and New York — require IVF benefits to include same-sex couples, according to a report from nonprofit news website Stateline. However, few insurance companies cover the full costs of fertility treatments, including IVF, which cost roughly $20,000 per cycle, according to the Department of Health and Human Services.
In May, a gay couple filed a first-of-its-kind class action lawsuit against New York City alleging that the city’s health insurance plan is discriminatory because it doesn’t cover IVF for male couples.
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
