In response to Donald Trump attempting to paper over his anti-choice and anti-freedom agenda, DNC Spokesperson Maddy Mundy released the following statement: 

“Donald Trump is a liar, and he’s insulting the millions of women nationwide whose right to reproductive care is under attack because of his actions by falsely claiming now that he would do anything to shore up women’s reproductive freedom. We know that Trump is ‘proudly the person responsible’ for overturning Roe v. Wade – and brags about it to this day. Trump ushered in attacks on IVF from MAGA Republicans across the country. Voters know the truth: Trump and his extreme MAGA Republican allies are hellbent on ripping away access to reproductive health care, including abortion, contraception, and IVF nationwide. The stakes couldn’t be higher for reproductive freedom, and Vice President Kamala Harris and Governor Tim Walz – who is open about his family’s struggles with fertility – are the only candidates in this race who will protect women’s rights and the hopes of American families.”

MAGA Republicans at the national level and in the states have included extreme language that threatens IVF access in their platforms.

The 19th: “RNC approves platform that would give rights to fetuses, endangering abortion, IVF”

“The Republican Party on Monday adopted a “Make America Great Again!” policy platform ahead of its national convention that… supports states establishing fetal personhood through the Constitution’s 14th Amendment, which grants equal protection under the law to all American citizens.

“If established by legislation, fetal personhood would have the practical effect of prohibiting abortion at all stages of pregnancy. Its impact could become national if courts affirm state-level laws that extend the application of the 14th Amendment to fetuses…

“Fetal personhood is widely seen as being in conflict with in vitro fertilization (IVF), which creates embryos outside of the uterus that are later implanted.”

Rolling Stone: “But the mask is falling off, and not just in Idaho: Earlier this month, GOP senators blocked a proposal that would have offered federal protection for IVF. In Texas, the state GOP ratified a new platform that promises ‘equal protection for the preborn,’ and asserts fertilized eggs are entitled to ‘the right to life … from the moment of fertilization…

“In Missouri, the GOP reaffirmed that life begins at conception at their convention this year, adding that the party endorses fetal personhood, or ‘legislation to make clear that the Fourteenth Amendment’s protections apply to unborn children.’ Such recognition would threaten access to both abortion and fertility treatments. The Kansas GOP has a similar amendment in its platform this year. Ditto North Carolina.”

Trump paved the way for GOP attacks on IVF access, and his extreme anti-choice allies — including the Project 2025 groups his campaign is already collaborating with — are pushing to gut IVF access. 

New York Times: “[The Alabama Supreme Court ruling on IVF was] made possible by the Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v. Wade in its 2022 Dobbs decision, which was a result of Mr. Trump’s appointment of three justices.”

CNN: “How the reversal of Roe v. Wade led to the Alabama Supreme Court ruling that frozen embryos are children”

HuffPost: “Donald Trump Has Deep Ties To Anti-IVF Movement”

“Like many Republicans, Trump’s words of support don’t align with his past actions on IVF. The current Republican presidential nominee ― who has repeatedly bragged about his role in repealing federal abortion protections ― has deep ties to extreme right-wing organizations that actively oppose IVF.

“While in the White House, Trump and his administration praised, appointed and worked with some of the nation’s most extreme thought leaders who believe the IVF process is akin to murder. Trump hosted the Alabama Supreme Court chief justice who wrote the IVF ruling twice: once during his 2016 campaign and in 2018 at the White House. (This is the same chief justice who recently appeared on a QAnon conspiracist’s show.)”

Politico: “Anti-abortion advocates worked for five decades to topple Roe v. Wade. They’re now laying the groundwork for a yearslong fight to curb in vitro fertilization.”

Senate Republicans, including JD Vance, have repeatedly blocked basic protections for IVF since the Alabama Supreme Court’s decision that threatened countless families’ access to IVF.

Associated Press: “Republicans block Senate bill to protect nationwide access to IVF treatments”

The Hill: “Senate Republicans blocked an effort Wednesday to pass legislation that would federally protect access to in vitro fertilization (IVF).”

125 House Republicans have supported the Life at Conception Act, which could rip away IVF access from families nationwide.

Daily Beast: “Republicans Struggle to Explain Away Their Hypocrisy on IVF”

Business Insider: “Most House Republicans have cosponsored a bill declaring that life begins from the moment of conception, a position under increased scrutiny after the Alabama Supreme Court ruled that frozen embryos are ‘unborn children.’

“This Congress, 125 House Republicans — including Speaker Mike Johnson — have cosponsored the ‘Life at Conception Act,’ which states that the term ‘human being’ includes ‘all stages of life, including the moment of fertilization, cloning, or other moment at which an individual member of the human species comes into being.’

“The bill does not include any exception for in vitro fertilization (IVF), a reproductive treatment that allows mothers to fertilize several eggs outside the womb in order to increase the chances of a viable pregnancy.”

NBC News: “But with the landmark Roe ruling protecting those rights gone, efforts by conservative lawmakers and judges to advance fetal personhood bills pose a real threat to some fertility treatments, including IVF, reproductive rights advocates say.”

Politico: “Dozens of congressional Republicans have signed onto so-called personhood legislation with no carve-out for embryos in clinics, which, if enacted, would upend how the procedure is practiced in the United States.”