The controversial Alabama Supreme Court ruling that declared frozen embryos are children and led to the curtailing of in vitro fertilization services in the state was mentioned during Tuesday night’s presidential debate between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris.
“Couples who pray and dream of having a family are being denied IVF treatment. What is happening in our country?” Harris said.
The decision earlier this year caused IVF providers to shutter amid their concerns of legal liability.
Amid the outrage, the Republican-led Alabama Legislature then scrambled to pass a bill signed by Gov. Kay Ivey that shielded IVF clinics from lawsuits.
“Working people, working women who are working one or two jobs – who can barely afford childcare as it is – have to travel to another state to get on a plane sitting next to strangers to go and get the healthcare she needs. Barely can afford to do it, and what you are putting her through is unconscionable,” Harris said, addressing Trump.
The former president responded by pointing out that he was quick to condemn the Alabama Supreme Court decision.
“I have been a leader on IVF, which is fertilization. In fact, when they got a very negative decision on IVF from the Alabama courts, I saw the people of Alabama and the legislature two days later voted it in,” he said. “I’ve been a leader on it. They know that, and everybody else knows it. I have been a leader on fertilization IVF.”
But the timeline Trump gave was off — it was 18 days, not two, between the Alabama Supreme Court decision and the day both houses of the state Legislature passed the IVF law. Counting Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey’s signing of the law the day after the Legislature acted, it was 19 days.
Late last month, Trump called for making government-sponsored insurance plans fully pay for IVF treatments without explaining how he would pay for the policy.
“I’m announcing today in a major statement that under the Trump administration, your government will pay for — or your insurance company will be mandated to pay for — all costs associated with IVF treatment,” he said at an event in Michigan. “Because we want more babies, to put it nicely.”
Despite the Alabama law shielding IVF clinics from legal liability, at least one hospital — Infirmary Health in Mobile, which was the defendant in the lawsuit that led to the Alabama Supreme Court decision — announced that it would not provide IVF treatments.
Associated Press reporting contributed to this story.
