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On Tuesday, Democrats held a vote to enshrine protections for IVF and mandate insurance coverage for the treatment. Unsurprisingly, Republicans blocked the legislation, with only Senators Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Susan Collins of Maine joining Democrats to vote for the bill.
Former president Donald Trump had only just promised that a second Trump administration would mean free IVF for all Americans. Yet, even Trump’s running mate JD Vance failed to show up to work that day to vote on the legislation.
Trump’s overtures on IVF came after Alabama’s supreme court ruled that frozen embryos are children. The judge in that ruling specifically cited Dobbs v Jackson, the US Supreme Court decision that overturned Roe v Wade. In doing so, the Alabama judge made sure there was nowhere for Trump to hide: overturning the federal right to abortion led directly to another state court being able to say embryos have human rights, and therefore being able to ban IVF.
Since then, Trump has tried to walk a tightrope on both abortion and IVF. He knows that such hardline stances are unpopular with the wider American populace, and he fears what that could do at the ballot box — especially when even deep red states like Kansas ended up voting against abortion bans in recent referenda. His position is endlessly confused: He recently said that Florida’s six-week ban on abortion is “too short”, before he backtracked and said he would vote against a proposed constitutional amendment to enshrine abortion rights that will be on the ballot in his home state in November.
It’s not just progressives and those who fight for reproductive rights who are worried. For many conservative anti-abortion activists, Trump’s waffling feels like a confirmation of their worst fears.
“In 2015, 2016 there were many people, including myself, who were very weary about voting for President Trump, and really wanted to know where he stood on this issue,” Kristan Hawkins, president of Students for Life of America, told The Independent earlier this month.
Ultimately, though, Hawkins said that Trump assuaged their concerns.
“He made a pledge, he made a deal, and he kept that deal and governed, and still today has the most pro-life record of any president in American history,” she said. “And so I think, you know, it's frustrating to see him walking back.”
Hawkins chose not to put the blame on Trump but rather sought to blame those around him.
“I definitely have concerns about those who are shepherding him,” she said. “If someone wants to drain the swamp — I think he's listening to way too many swampy people, in my opinion.”
Nevertheless, Hawkins added that she was encouraged by Trump saying he would vote against the abortion amendment in Florida.
During his debate with Vice President Kamala Harris, Trump claimed — erroneously and outrageously — that Democrats support measures that would allow for a baby to be “executed” after birth. It was a claim that debate moderator Linsey Davis debunked in the moment. Trump went on to claim, “I have been a leader on fertilization, IVF,” not long afterwards.
That set off alarm bells for Lila Rose, the president of Live Action.
“IVF creates new, individual, unique human beings,” she told The Independent. “And so it's a very, very dangerous technology for human beings, and it ultimately amounts to the reckless treatment of human life, because 93% of the children created through IVF are frozen and destroyed or die.”
Rose went so far as to say that she believes Trump has been parroting the words of pro-choice activists. Indeed, in August, Trump wrote on Truth Social that “My Administration will be great for women and their reproductive rights.”
“So I think what the pro-life movement is urging President Trump to do is push back against that position and stand up for life, and stop using any kind of pro-abortion rhetoric, and stop pushing any kind of policies that are in support of abortion and instead champion for life,” Rose said. She added that she worried that Republicans were skirting the issue of abortion and she expressed concern about the weakening of a hardline anti-abortion stance in the party.
“It's very destructive, and I think it makes the Republican Party just look more like the Democratic Party, and I don't think that's going to be a winning platform for the party long-term, and it's also not the morally right thing to do,” she said.
Ultimately, though, Trump does not seem to be any closer to having a concrete policy that would satisfy anti-abortion activists. Indeed, on Tuesday, his former vice president Mike Pence criticized Trump in an interview for backing away from opposing abortion.
“I wanted to see the president reclaim his passion for life, the passion we had in our administration,” Pence, who is not endorsing Trump, said.
Having pandered to evangelicals and confirmed ultra-conservative justices to the Supreme Court, Trump now finds himself in a tough spot. Such extreme views are not actually popular with the electorate, and already appear to have cost Republicans votes in the midterms. Yet, in such a neck-and-neck election, losing any small percentage of support could cost him dearly. Between a rock and a hard place, the former president has elected to simply sit down in the middle. Only time will tell if that kind of equivocation will work.
