During a rally in Wisconsin Thursday Vice President Kamala Harris claimed that Donald Trump was to blame for in vitro fertilization being at risk. Is that true?
Harris’ comments come a few days after Trump said that he was the “father of IVF.”
“What does that even mean?” Harris said. “He’s the one responsible for it being at risk in the first place.”
IVF was thrust into the national discourse in February after the Alabama Supreme Court ruled that a couple could sue a Mobile clinic for the wrongful death of a “minor child.”
The “child” in this circumstance was a frozen embryo that was accidentally destroyed.
But the basis for the court’s decision was Alabama’s Wrongful Death of a Minor Act and a 2018 constitutional amendment proposed by a Republican legislator stating that Alabama must, “ensure the protection of the rights of the unborn child.”
The fallout from the IVF ruling highlighted concerns about reproductive healthcare and laws surrounding questions of personhood.
Alabama’s Republican supermajority quickly scrambled to pass protections for clinics and doctors to provide IVF services after several facilities paused the treatments fearing legal repercussions as a result of the ruling.
Democrats blamed Republicans for the IVF ruling stating it was a problem of their own creation because of their support for laws that define unborn children as having personhood.
Trump appointed several conservative U.S. Supreme Court justices in his tenure which gave way for the overturning of Roe v. Wade in 2022.
Following the decision, many states enacted anti-abortion legislation.
Because laws or statutes related to abortion often include definitions about when personhood begins, some fear IVF will be endangered.
Although Alabama passed protections for clinics and doctors, it did not respond to the issue of personhood.
While Republicans attempt to assert that they support IVF, Democrats have used the issue as an example of how reproductive rights will be harmed under conservative control.
Sen. Katie Britt, R-Ala., who co-authored the IVF Protection Act with Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, said her bill was blocked by Democrats who seek to engage in fear-mongering “to mislead and confuse the American people. IVF is legal and available in every state in the nation.”
