Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump said on Thursday he will require the government or insurance companies to pay for IVF fertility treatments if he is elected in November, a move likely aimed at appealing to women and suburban voters.
"Your government will pay for or your insurance company will be mandated to pay for all costs associated with IVF treatment fertilization for women," the former president told supporters at a campaign event in Potterville, Michigan.
Trump also said his administration would push for allowing new parents to deduct "major newborn expenses" from their taxes.
"We want more babies," Trump said.
Opinion polls show Trump has lost ground with women voters since Vice President Kamala Harris became the Democratic candidate in the Nov. 5 election. Harris led Trump by 49% to 36% - or 13 percentage points - among women voters in a Reuters/Ipsos poll published on Thursday, compared to her 9-point lead in polls conducted in July.
In speeches, Harris has attacked Trump's abortion position and painted Republicans as a threat to women's rights, including access to birth control and fertility treatments.
Trump's IVF pledge may be an attempt to win over women and other voters alarmed by his record on abortion rights.
Trump, who as president appointed three of the justices who made up the majority that ended constitutional protection for abortion, has said the matter is now to be decided by individual states.
Last week, Trump posted on his Truth Social account that his administration would be "great for women and their reproductive rights" - a statement that was viewed by some as an attempt by Trump to moderate his position and drew criticism from evangelicals.
Trump's running mate, U.S. Senator JD Vance, said on Sunday that Trump would veto a national abortion ban if one were to be passed by Congress.
A spokesperson for Harris, Sarafina Chitika, said on Thursday that Trump should not be trusted on issues relating to women's reproductive care.
"Because Trump overturned Roe v. Wade, IVF is already under attack and women’s freedoms have been ripped away in states across the country," Chitika said.
IVF has emerged as a hot-button issue in this election, as Republicans nationwide have scrambled to contain backlash from a decision by the Alabama Supreme Court, which ruled in February that embryos were children.
That ruling left it unclear how to legally store, transport and use embryos, prompting some IVF patients to consider moving their frozen embryos out of the state.
Trump did not elaborate on how his administration would cover the cost of IVF treatments and the changes to the U.S. tax code, or whether he would seek congressional action on his proposals.
Not all states currently require insurance companies to cover IVF, which involves combining eggs and sperm in a laboratory dish to create an embryo for couples having difficulty conceiving. Even with coverage, IVF is an expensive process that can cost thousands of dollars in drugs and medical procedures.
