Trump claims title of ‘father of IVF’ in Fox News town hall with female voters • Missouri Independent

Former President Donald Trump answered questions from female voters during a Fox News town hall in Georgia that aired Wednesday, calling himself “the father of IVF” as he discussed the fertility treatment that was thrust into the spotlight after an Alabama court ruling earlier this year.

The Republican presidential candidate – who also calls himself a “protector” of women – has been trying to win over the critical voting bloc as he and Vice President Kamala Harris are neck and neck in a race largely defined by a gender divide.

Trump faced a friendly crowd in Cumming, Georgia, a suburb of Atlanta, at the event that Fox News said focused on “women’s issues.”

The former president made several false claims at the town hall hosted by Fox News’ Harris Faulkner, often responding with long-winded answers to questions about the economy, immigration and abortion.

Trump has walked a fine line on abortion in recent months, often zigzagging on his positions, though he currently insists he would veto a federal abortion ban.

During his administration, Trump nominated three justices to the U.S. Supreme Court, all of whom voted to overturn Roe v. Wade, ending nearly half a century of the constitutional right to abortion.

When asked by an audience member why the government is “involved in women’s basic rights,” Trump said abortion is now “back in the United States.” The conservative justices essentially wrote that ending Roe v. Wade meant “returning the authority to regulate abortion to the people and their elected representatives,” including Congress and the president.

Trump noted that abortion restrictions in some states are “too strict” and predicted that those measures “will be renewed because there is already movement in those states.”

He said he believes in “exceptions for rape, incest and the life of the mother.”

When Trump claimed his leadership on IVF, he also said, “we are truly the party of IVF.” However, Republicans in Congress have blocked the advancement of legislation on in vitro fertilization, including an effort by U.S. Senate Democrats in March to expand access for military personnel and veterans.

In September, Senate Republicans blocked a Democratic bill that would have prevented states from imposing “harmful or unwarranted restrictions” on the fertility procedure and expanded access for military members and veterans.

But Trump insisted at the town hall that his party supports IVF. “We want conception, and it is all the way, and the Democrats tried to attack us on it, and we are more into IVF than they are, so we are all for it,” he said.

The IVF debate erupted in Alabama earlier this year after the Alabama Supreme Court issued an opinion in February that frozen embryos are children under state law.

That ruling forced the state’s IVF clinics to halt operations until the state Legislature passed a bill providing criminal and civil protections for those clinics.

Trump called on Alabama lawmakers to “find an immediate solution” a few days after the ruling, and national Republicans running for Congress also sought to distance themselves from the controversial decision in Alabama.

Trump reiterated the timeline of events at the town hall, saying, “So I got a call from Katie Britt, a young, just a fantastically attractive person from Alabama. She is a senator and she called me saying ’emergency’ because a judge in Alabama had ruled that the IVF clinics were illegal and should be closed.” Britt, a Republican and member of the US Senate from Alabama, was also selected to deliver the State of the Union response to President Joe Biden.

Trump continued: “And I said, ‘explain IVF real quick,’ and within about two minutes I understood. I said, ‘No, no, we are completely in favor of IVF.’ Within an hour I came up with a statement, a very powerful statement, with some experts, really powerful. And we were fully supportive, the Republican Party, the entire party. (The) Alabama legislature overturned a day later, which means they passed it… the judge essentially approved it.

Harris later Wednesday clapped back at Trump’s description of himself as the “father of IVF,” saying she found it “pretty bizarre.”

“And if he meant taking responsibility, then he should take responsibility for the fact that 1 in 3 women in America live in a state where Trump has an abortion ban,” she said.

Immigration was a central topic during the town hall, and Trump repeated several false claims on the issue, including that Harris was named “border czar.”

Although President Joe Biden tasked Harris with tackling the “root causes” of migration in Central America in 2021, he did not give her the title of “border czar.” The US Department of Homeland Security is responsible for border security.

Trump also reiterated his pledge to ban all sanctuary cities, saying they are “really for one thing: protecting criminals” and “that’s what they’ve become.” Such cities have stated that they oppose cooperating with federal immigration authorities.

“We’re going to put an end to all the sanctuary cities in the United States, and we’re going to get back to normalcy, and we’re going to have law and order… we have to revitalize our police,” he said.

Trump also said the US had “the greatest economy in the history of our country” under his administration.

This claim has proven incorrect when evaluating factors such as the unemployment rate, annual gross domestic product increase and wage growth during his presidency compared to other administrations, according to PolitiFact.

He also reiterated his plans to eliminate taxes on Social Security benefits and halve energy costs if re-elected.

Ahead of Trump’s town hall, the Harris campaign hosted a press call Tuesday in which Democratic Sens. Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff from Georgia, and the relatives of Amber Thurman, were discussed. A ProPublica investigation linked Georgia’s restrictive abortion law to Thurman’s death.

Ossoff said that in Trump “you have the architect of the nationwide campaign to overturn Roe v. Wade and end decades of protecting the privacy of women’s health care and the ability of doctors to provide necessary care.” – and with Vice President Harris you have a clear and leading commitment to standing up for the health of pregnant women and empowering doctors to provide the care they need.”

Harris was scheduled to deliver remarks at a campaign event in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, on Wednesday. She was also scheduled to appear in a sit-down interview with Fox News’ Bret Baier that aired Wednesday.