Republican vice presidential candidate Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH) speaks during a VFW Post 92 campaign rally in New Kensington, Pennsylvania, on August 15, 2024.
Jeff Swenson | Getty Images
Republican presidential running mate Sen. J.D. Vance did not provide many specific details on Friday when asked how former President Donald Trump would pay for his new plan. Request a government or private insurance company To cover the cost of IVF treatment.
“Is this an expansion of Obamacare? Is this a mandate?” CNN anchor John Berman asked the Ohio senator.
“Well, look, I think insurance companies are obviously forced to cover a whole suite of services,” Vance responded.
“The president has made it clear that he wants insurance companies to cover the additional costs of fertility treatments,” he added, blaming Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris for the higher costs more broadly.
Trump has IVF policy launched That was much the case a day earlier at a campaign event in Michigan.
Republican presidential candidate and former U.S. President Donald Trump gestures during a visit to the Alro Steel manufacturing plant in Porterville, Michigan, USA, on August 29, 2024.
Brian Snyder | Reuters
“I’m announcing today in a major announcement that under the Trump administration, your government will pay – or your insurance companies will be forced to pay – all costs associated with IVF treatment,” he said.
he later told nbc news A future Trump administration will “pay for this treatment,” while adding, “We will require insurance companies to pay for it.”
The vast majority of assisted reproductive procedures for infertility use in vitro fertilization (IVF). but it can be prohibitively expensiveAccording to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the cost of a single IVF cycle ranges from $15,000 to $30,000, and it takes an average of 2.5 cycles to get pregnant.
According to the Association for Assisted Reproductive Technology, recently 390,000 IVF cycles In 2022, 368 of its member clinics conducted such examinations, a 6% increase from the previous year.
based on a Average initial cost is $20,000 Under Trump’s plan, each round of IVF would cost taxpayers or private insurance companies nearly $8 billion a year.
Also, if there is no out-of-pocket cost for IVF treatment, the same way Routine exams and mammograms Under the Affordable Care Act, there could be a surge in the number of patients seeking treatment.
IVF, Trump and abortion
Trump’s use of in vitro fertilization as a policy platform is the former president’s latest effort to appeal to voters concerned about women’s reproductive rights.
recent opinion polls presidential campaign Harris leads Trump among female voters.
The lead reflects a broader shift among voters since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022, which protected federal abortion rights for nearly 50 years.
The majority in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization includes three conservative justices nominated by Trump.
In the two years since the Dobbs decision, 22 states Either a total ban on abortion or enacting further restrictions than previous standards under Roe, according to the New York Times.
Trump has repeatedly been praised for ending Roe while falsely claiming that experts of all political stripes unanimously want the abortion issue to be decided by states rather than the federal government.
While Trump has courted anti-abortion voters and advocacy groups during his third campaign for president, he has also sought to distance himself from states that moved to tighten abortion restrictions in the wake of Dobbs.
He has also spoken out against proposals by some Republican allies, including South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham, for a federal abortion ban. The Republican Party in July adopted a new platform backed by Trump that significantly softened its stance on abortion.
Still, the Harris campaign has repeatedly warned that Trump would impose a nationwide abortion ban if he wins a second term in the White House.
In vitro fertilization (IVF) came to the forefront of the conflict over reproductive rights in February, when an Alabama Supreme Court ruling prompted the state’s fertility treatment providers to suspend services over concerns legal risks.
Democrats were quick to link the development to Trump and Dobbs. Trump in turn urged the state to find a solution to “preserve the availability of IVF in Alabama.”
In an interview with CNN on Friday, Vance was asked how Trump’s new federally mandated IVF funding program would work if a state chose to ban the procedure.
Vance responded, “I think that’s a ridiculous assumption,” adding that Alabama “aggressively protects reproductive access and fertility treatments.”
Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey signed a state law in early March aimed at protecting IVF and removing controversy over court rulings. But there are multiple IVF clinics in the state Already closed After the controversy.
florida storm
Vance has also faced repeated questions about Trump’s recent remarks about a controversial ballot measure that would extend abortion rights in Florida as long as the fetus is viable, typically around the 24th week of pregnancy.
If passed, the ballot initiative known as Amendment 4 would overturn a bill signed by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis last year that banned abortions in Florida after six weeks of pregnancy — which many women also They are pregnant without knowing the status of abortion after six weeks of pregnancy
“I’m going to vote that we need more than six weeks” to legalize abortion, Trump told NBC’s Dasha Burns on Thursday.
Trump’s response drew strong condemnation from prominent anti-abortion advocates.
Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of the national anti-abortion group SBA Pro-Life America, said on
“This leaves no contrast between Trump and Harris,” she wrote on Trump’s social media account.
Faced with fierce criticism from the anti-abortion right, Trump’s presidential campaign has sought to walk back his remarks and leave some ambiguity around how he will vote on the Fourth Amendment.
“President Trump has not yet said how he will vote on Florida’s ballot initiative and has only reiterated that he believes six weeks is too short,” the campaign said in a statement.
Vance insisted to CNN on Friday that Trump’s stance on abortion is “extremely consistent.” But he also emphasized that Trump has not yet made a decision on the Fourth Amendment.
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