Former president Donald Trump appears to be trying out a new tactic to appeal to a demographic he’s always struggled to win votes from – women.
During an interview with Fox News in front of an all-female audience, Trump declared he’s “the father of IVF”.
Answering an audience member’s question on the matter, Trump said he was told by Republican senator Katie Britt, whom he called “a fantastically attractive person”, that many women in her state were “angered” by the fact that, earlier this year, an Alabama court had ruled that frozen embryos are humans.
Following this ruling, Alabama’s IVF clinics paused their services out of fear of being sued.
“I said [to Britt]: ‘Explain IVF very quickly’. And within about two minutes I understood it, and I said; ‘No, no. We’re totally in favour of IVF’. I came out with a statement within an hour. A really powerful statement… We really are the party for IVF”.
Somebody should tell Trump’s running mate JD Vance that they “are the party for IVF” because his philosophy stands in stark contrast.
In a 2017 collection of essays, Vance shared his views on the topic, lamenting the spread of IVF treatments and likening them to the cause of women’s decisions to delay having children and prioritising higher education over starting families. Vance was also one of 47 GOP senators who voted against a bill in June that was intended to expand access to IVF treatment.
How do women feel about IVF?
In vitro fertilization (IVF) is a fertility treatment that involves fertilizing an egg with sperm in a laboratory, and then placing the resulting embryo in the woman’s uterus. It allows people who are unable to conceive naturally an opportunity to have biological children.
In April, a Pew Research Center survey found that Americans overwhelmingly say better access to IVF is a good thing. Seven in 10 adults say IVF access is a good thing. Just 8 per cent say it is a bad thing, while 22 per cent are unsure.
Even those who view abortion as a practice that should be illegal in most cases have generally viewed IVF access in a positive light, with 60 per cent of these people saying it’s good.
Here in Australia, support for IVF treatment is strong. The country is a leader in IVF research and invests in advanced technology to improve outcomes.
In December 2023, the federal government invested $3 million into a world-first IVF study, looking into how whole genome sequencing can be used to achieve better patient outcomes with IVF medications. Lead researcher Professor Beverley Vollenhoven from Monash University says the study has the potential to revolutionise the entire landscape of fertility care.
And just last month, UNSW received $1.7 million to establish a world-first database on fertility, infertility and reproductive medicine. The platform is aimed at helping researchers better investigate critical questions around infertility and encourage new research and technologies in reproductive medicine.
Almost one child in every 20 born in Australia is conceived using assisted reproductive technologies, including in-vitro fertilisation (IVF).
Will Trump and Vance “protect” women?
The issue of IVF is one of many threads of controversy that Vance has inflamed, alongside his statement that America is run by “childless cat ladies” and that he’s disturbed by the idea of teachers not having children. Vance has also suggested that people without children are more likely to become “sociopathic”– that bizarre statement was in response to women’s very real concerns about bringing children into a world being destroyed by climate change.
Between Vance and Trump, bizarre and chilling statements are abound.
“I want to be your protector. As president, I have to be your protector,” Trump said at a rally in the battleground state of Pennsylvania earlier this week. He made the claim that women are “poorer, less healthy, less safe, more stressed, depressed and unhappy” than they were four years ago.
A couple days later, he repeated this narrative, claiming women “will no longer be thinking about abortion” if he wins the White House.
This is contradictory, of course, to his frequent bragging about his role in the Supreme Court’s decision to overrule Roe vs. Wade, which has placed the issue of abortion rights front and centre in the minds of most women across the US.
The 78-year-old has been repeating this narrative in phrasing that sounds more like the start of a dystopian film than a calming reassurance.
Over the weekend, at a North Carolina rally, Trump said women’s “lives will be happy, beautiful, and their lives will be great again. So women, we love you. We’re going to take care of you.”
Multiple women have spoken out on Trump’s history of abuse and sexual misconduct. Last year, a jury found him liable for sexually abusing and defaming E. Jean Carroll.
Trump and women voters
Sounds like all the women of America can now breathe a sigh of relief. The man who’s never told a lie in his life has said he will “protect us”.
Thankfully, when we take a look at the polls, it seems women aren’t so easily fooled.
Ever since his bid for presidency in 2016, Trump has struggled to gain the support of female voters, with the gender gap widening even further at the 2022 midterm elections. Heightened concerns about reproductive rights saw women flock to support Democrats.
The gender gap typically refers to the difference between the percentage of women and the percentage of men voting for the winning candidate.
Polling ahead of the 2024 race has shown signs that this divide is widening even further, as Trump makes gains among men while losing even more ground with women. A New York Times/Siena College poll in Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin revealed that 55 percent of registered men support Trump compared to just 39 percent of women.
And women are backing Harris at significantly higher rates than they did President Biden.