Trump urges Alabama to protect in-vitro fertilization access after court ruling

Republican presidential frontrunner Donald Trump urged Alabama’s legislature to protect the availability of in-vitro fertilization after the 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 Friday.

Trump, the ex-president waging a 2024 White House comeback campaign, insisted Alabama’s legislature make the procedure available.

“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 recognized unimplanted human embryos as children, a decision 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 fetal personhood.

The Alabama ruling again thrusts the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2022 reversal of federal abortion rights into the spotlight. The issue has bedeviled Republicans in recent elections as they struggle to craft a message that appeals 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, 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 v. Wade.”

Polls show most Americans believe abortion should be legal in all or most cases.

Democrats have sought to keep abortion rights centered before the electorate to galvanize 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, Nikki Haley, in her home state.

Haley this week said she considered frozen embryos created through IVF “babies,” but added that does not mean she agreed with the Alabama ruling.

“Our goal is to always do what the parents want with their embryo,” 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. The former president enjoys ardent support from evangelicals but managed to rankle faith-based leaders after the 2022 midterms by blaming the GOP’s messaging on abortion for its worse-than-expected performance in that election.

Trump, who rode evangelical support to the White House in 2016 and will need those voters to turn out if he intends to defeat Biden in November, has sought to mend those ties.

In a speech Thursday night to evangelical broadcasters, Trump took credit for curtailing federal abortion rights, noting his appointment of three conservative justices to the U.S. Supreme Court. But he still stopped short of saying if 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. Biden’s campaign has assailed Trump, saying he is endorsing a “nationwide ban” on abortion.

A 16-week ban, though, is less restrictive than measures favored by much of the GOP. Many Republican states after the reversal of Roe v. Wade instituted tougher laws, including bans on abortion after six weeks — a timeframe before many women even know they are pregnant.

Haley, who has said her son was conceived via artificial insemination, has called herself “unapologetically pro-life,” but, during last year’s Republican debates, downplayed the idea of a federal ban.