Harris campaign slams ‘creepy’ Trump for claiming he’s the ‘father of IVF’ in Fox News town hall

Former President Donald Trump declared himself the “father of IVF” before an all-female audience during a taped Fox News town hall event that aired Wednesday morning.

Trump answered a series of questions from female voters who were almost entirely Republican and hand-selected by Fox News, The Independent reported. Towards the end, the conversation shifted to reproductive rights.

“I want to talk about IVF. I’m the father of IVF, so I want to hear this question,” Trump said before a woman spoke.

“We are truly the party for IVF,” Trump told host Harris Faulkner. “We want conception, and it is totally, and the Democrats tried to attack us on it, and we are there on IVF, even more than them. So we are fully in favor of it.”

IVF, the fertility treatment responsible for about 2% of U.S. births, emerged as a central issue in the presidential race earlier this year when the Alabama Supreme Court ruled that frozen embryos should be considered children and that people are legally can be held responsible for its destruction. At least twelve other states now have pending legislation that threatens the legality of IVF.

During his campaign, the 78-year-old Republican candidate repeatedly tried to cast himself as a defender of IVF, despite singling out the Supreme Court justices responsible for overturning Roe v. Wade. GOP party members have also voted twice to block legislation that would legally protect those who choose to undergo IVF. The party platform also endorses the concept of ‘fetal personhood’, which jeopardizes access to all reproductive care, including IVF.

“Donald Trump called himself ‘the father of IVF’, what is he talking about?” Vice President Kamala Harris wrote about

Gwen Walz, the wife of Harris’ running mate Tim Walz, was also dismayed by Trump’s self-proclaimed title.

“The father of IVF? More like the father of the abortion ban in Georgia,” she said at a campaign event in Georgia. The mother of two has previously revealed that she herself has undergone fertility treatment.

“The ‘father of IVF’ is not just creepy,” she added, “it’s downright crazy.”