In wake of Ala. court ruling, Trump says he supports IVF
COLUMBIA, S.C. — Former President Donald Trump said Friday that he would “strongly support the availability of IVF” and called on lawmakers in Alabama to preserve access to the treatment.
It was his first comment since an Alabama Supreme Court ruling that led some providers in the state to suspend their in vitro fertilization programs and has left Republicans divided over the issue.
Trump, in a post on his Truth Social network, said: “Under my leadership, the Republican Party will always support the creation of strong, thriving, healthy American families. We want to make it easier for mothers and fathers to have babies, not harder!”
The comments come after
a ruling by the all-republican Alabama Supreme Court, among the nation’s most conservative judicial panels, that frozen embryos can be considered children under state law. Since then, some Alabama clinics and hospitals have announced pauses on IVF services.
The fallout has deepened divisions among conservatives over abortion and
other reproductive services in a campaign year already fraught with debates over whether Republicans should pursue national abortion limits after the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2022 ruling that overturned the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision that legalized abortion nationwide. Trump and former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, his last remaining major opponent for the 2024 nomination, have both cautioned against an absolute national ban.
As president, Trump nominated three of the justices who overturned Roe and paved the way for state lawmakers to impose dramatic restrictions on access to abortion.
Trump and Haley campaigned Friday ahead of Saturday’s South Carolina Republican presidential primary, in which the former president is the overwhelming favorite, despite Haley having been twice elected South Carolina governor. The Alabama decision almost certainly will not change GOP primary dynamics, but the conversation carries important implications for the general election as Republicans try to avoid being tagged by Democrats as too extreme on reproductive policy.
Haley said Wednesday, after the ruling, that she views human embryos, which are the earliest form of development after fertilization, as “babies.” But she also said she disagrees with the Alabama court and said the state’s legislators should “look at the law.”
Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey and Republican legislative leaders had already started that conservation before the GOP’S presidential candidates weighed in.
During a speech Thursday night, Trump promised to use a second term in the White House to defend Christian values and even suggested he’d shield the faith’s central iconography, warning a convention of religious broadcasters that the left wants “to tear down crosses.”
“Remember, every communist regime throughout history has tried to stamp out the churches, just like every fascist regime has tried to co-opt them and control them,” Trump told cheering attendees at the National Religious Broadcasters International Christian Media Convention in Nashville, Tennessee. “And, in America, the radical left is trying to do both.
“They want to tear down crosses where they can, and cover them up with social justice flags,” Trump added. “But no one will be touching the cross of Christ under the Trump administration, I swear to you.”
Trump’s comments reflect his embrace of Christian nationalism, a belief that is powerful among conservative evangelicals who say the founders of the U.S. intended the country to be a Christian nation. Some adherents believe the U.S. Constitution was inspired by God and that the federal government should declare the U.S. a Christian nation, advocate Christian values or stop enforcing the separation of church and state.