Trump calls himself ‘father of IVF’ and doubles down on ‘enemy inside’ comments at town hall

Former President Donald Trump spoke with Fox News’ Harris Faulkner before an all-female audience in Cummings, Georgia, on Tuesday evening, discussing several issues aimed at appealing to female voters, including the child tax credit, the economy and reproductive rights. – calls himself the ‘father of IVF’.

Speaking to a friendly audience of more than a hundred women of all ages, Trump sought to court suburban women in Georgia’s Forsyth County — a reliably red county where Democrats have made gains in recent years.

Recently, Trump has tried to reach out to women voters — the largest voting bloc in the 2024 election — by suggesting that they will be “safer” under a Trump administration, that he will be a “protector” of women and that they ” will do that too’. stop thinking about abortion” if he wins the White House.

MORE: Trump repeats claims that women will ‘stop thinking about abortion’ if he becomes president

During the event, which aired Wednesday morning, Trump was asked about his positions on access to abortion and in vitro fertilization — key voter issues after the Supreme Court ruled Roe vs. Wade had pushed aside in 2022. Trump himself often brags about his role on the Supreme Court. decision to set aside the case that secured the constitutional right to abortion.

“Oh, I want to talk about IVF. I’m the father of IVF,” Trump blurted.

Senator Katie Britt, who introduced the IVF Protection Act, explained IVF to the former president, according to Trump.

“Within about two minutes I understood that we are fully in favor of IVF. Within an hour I came out with a statement, a very strong statement from a number of experts, very strong,” he said, adding that “we are really the party for IVF. We want fertilization.”

Trump reiterated his stance on abortion, suggesting he has handed power back to the states.

“It’s back in the United States where they can have the voice of the people. It’s exactly where they want to be. Remember this: This issue has torn this country apart for 52 years. So we have it back in the United States, we have a voice of the people, and it is working its way through the system, and ultimately it will do the right thing,” Trump said.

MORE: Harris calls Trump ‘increasingly unstable and unhinged’ during Pennsylvania rally

At one point, Trump suggested that some states should revise their abortion laws, citing rape, incest and exceptions.

“It’s going to be done again,” Trump said of the abortion laws. “They go, you go, you end up having a voice of the people, and some of them, I agree, they are too heavy, too heavy. And those will be done again because there is already a movement in those states.”

Vice President Kamala Harris responded to X on Trump’s claim that he is the “father of IVF.”

“What is he talking about?” she wrote. “His abortion bans have already threatened access to them in states across the country — and his own platform could end IVF altogether.”

On Wednesday, Harris called Trump’s comments “bizarre” and said that “his actions have been deeply harmful to women and families in America.”

“He actually called himself the ‘father of IVF’ and if he meant taking responsibility, he should also take responsibility for the fact that one in three women in America lives in a state where Trump has an abortion ban. What he should take responsibility for is that couples who are praying and hoping and working to build a family are so disappointed and harmed by the fact that IVF treatments have now been compromised,” Harris told reporters.

Trump’s comment was also quickly picked up by women in the abortion rights movement, such as EMILY’s List and the Planned Parenthood Action Fund, who called it “deeply out of touch with the vast majority of the American people.”

“Let’s call this charade what it is: a last-ditch effort to deceive voters,” says Jessica Mackler, president of EMILY’s List, calling it an “insult to women everywhere who he thinks will fall for his phony attempt to change his name. abortion.”

Alexis McGill Johnson, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood Action Fund, said Trump “cannot be trusted — not with our bodies, our lives or our future.”

Trump also doubled down on his rhetoric, suggesting to Maria Bartiromo on Fox News that “the bigger problem is the enemy within” when answering a question about whether he thought the November election would be peaceful.

MORE: Trump’s ‘enemy from within’ threat raises concerns among critics about his authoritarian shift

Trump’s comments last week suggest the military would target his political opponents if he were to become president. Faulkner played the video clip during the town hall, to which Trump responded, “if I have to.”

He continued, building on his rhetoric, “I thought it was a nice presentation” and said he was not “unhinged” as Harris claimed at a rally in Erie, Pennsylvania earlier this week.

“It’s the enemy from within, and they’re very dangerous,” Trump told Faulkner.

At one point in the town hall, Faulkner described the Democrats’ foreword to the event, mentioning the family of Amber Thurman, a Georgia woman who died of complications after her abortion in the state — with a ProPublica report saying that her death was an instant death. result of the state’s six-week abortion ban.

Thurman’s family was on the phone with Senator Raphael Warnock, and when Faulkner asked about that call, Trump — instead of acknowledging the deaths of the Thurman family and Amber Thurman — joked that the Fox News town hall he was currently participating in would do. get better ratings.”

Trump calls himself ‘father of IVF’ and doubles down on ‘enemy inside’ town hall comments that originally appeared on abcnews.go.com