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A week, apropos of nothing, Donald Trump published a one-sentence missive to his social media platform. “The Republican Party is charging forward on many fronts,” the former president wrote, “and I am very proud that we are a LEADER on I.V.F.”
And what, pray tell, would that mean in practice? Six days later, a possible answer came into sharper focus. NBC News reported:
Former President Donald Trump said in an interview with NBC News on Thursday that if he is elected, his administration would not only protect access to in-vitro fertilization but would also have either the government or insurance companies cover the cost of the expensive service for American women who need it.
“We are going to be, under the Trump administration, we are going to be paying for that treatment,” Trump said before adding, “We’re going to be mandating that the insurance company pay.”
The wording led to some confusion about the relevant policy details. Does the Republican nominee, who didn’t pursue anything along these lines during his four years in the White House, envision a model in which the federal government would pick up the tab for IVF services — comparable to an existing policy on dialysis — or one in which private insurers would be forced to cover the costs?
When NBC News sought clarification, the former president said that one option would be to have insurance companies pay “under a mandate, yes.” When CNN asked vice presidential nominee JD Vance how this would work in states that ban IVF, he didn’t have much of an answer, either.
It seems, in other words, as if Team Trump has some homework to do when it comes to how all of this would work.
Still, this is an unusually progressive announcement from a radically far-right candidate, isn’t it? It would be, if the GOP candidate’s rhetoric were believable.
Indeed, the Harris campaign responded to the news with a press statement featuring several notable bullet points:
- Donald Trump’s own platform — linked on his campaign website — could effectively ban IVF by establishing so-called “fetal personhood.”
- Trump appointed an anti-IVF judge to a lifetime federal judicial appointment. He even added her to a list of potential Supreme Court picks.
- Trump’s White House and campaign hosted the Alabama Supreme Court chief justice whose ruling effectively banned IVF in the state earlier this year.
- Trump’s campaign has refused for more than six months to support protecting IVF.
- Donald Trump has deep ties to the anti-IVF movement.
- Trump’s running mate, JD Vance, voted against IVF protections.
We could go further down this same path, noting just how many of Trump’s own allies are looking forward to his prospective second term precisely so that they can undermine IVF access.
For that matter, given that Trump tried to repeal, undermine, and sabotage the Affordable Care Act, it’s probably best to take all of his promises related to health care with a grain of salt.
But I’m also struck by the broader policy circumstances. For many years, Republicans have condemned the idea of socialized health care coverage and staunchly opposed private insurance benefit mandates. And yet, here’s Trump, looking for a winning campaign issue, insisting that Americans’ IVF treatments will be covered, either through socialized health care coverage or a private insurance benefit mandate.
The party’s principles on health care are firm and inviolable — except when they’re not.