Massachusetts governor calls Trump’s IVF proposal ‘offensive’

Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey (D) on Sunday poured cold water over the legitimacy of former President Trump’s proposal to have the government or insurance companies cover in vitro fertilization (IVF), stating voters cannot “believe anything” he says on reproductive issues.

“You can’t take this seriously. I mean, this isn’t just a Republican — and by the way, I work well with Republicans — this is Donald Trump, who will say anything and everything depending on where the wind is blowing,” Healey said on CBS News’s “Face the Nation.” “He caught some heat the other day, you know, and so he comes out with a statement that, all of a sudden, he’s a believer in IVF. It’s just patently false, it’s offensive.”

Trump said Thursday his administration would protect access to IVF and have either the government or insurance companies pay for the treatment if he’s elected in November.

“Under the Trump administration, we are going to be paying for that treatment,” he said in an exclusive interview with NBC News, adding that would apply to “all Americans who get it; all Americans who need it.”

“So, we’re going to be paying for that treatment, or we’re going to be mandating that the insurance companies pay,” he added.

Although Republicans have not directly opposed IVF access, Democrats say Trump and his party made it possible for the Alabama Supreme Court ruling in February that frozen embryos could be considered the same as children, and therefore discarding them could be criminal. The ruling temporarily halted IVF services for many patients in Alabama.  

“First of all, don’t believe anything that Donald Trump says,” Healey said. “You know, as attorney general, I had to sue him over 100 times for his lies. And as governor, I’ve seen the very real difference between a Trump administration and an administration that will have Kamala Harris when it to health, women’s health, reproductive freedom. There can be no clear a difference in this election, Kamala Harris stands squarely for reproductive freedom.”

She later said Vice President Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D), are “out there day after day on offense,” on the issue.

“And they’re not just talking to Democrats; they’re talking to Republicans, to independents, and to so many Americans who are just tuning in this Labor Day and haven’t made up their mind about who they’re going to vote for, and on issue after issue, protecting the middle class a well-functioning economy, standing up for reproductive freedom. These are all things that Kamala Harris and Tim Walz believe in and will fight for, and things that Donald Trump and [Sen] JD Vance [R-Ohio] don’t know the first thing about and cannot deliver on.”

IVF has been a central concern for political figures and voters alike in the past year, especially following the Alabama Supreme Court decision.

The former president has repeatedly been blamed by Democrats for the reversal of Roe v. Wade in 2022, after he appointed three of the justices who voted with a 6-3 majority in the landmark decision.

The Trump-Vance campaign, like the larger Republican party ahead of the 2024 election, has largely sought to sidestep issues related to abortion and reproductive rights, given the unpopularity of its anti-abortion agenda among voters since Roe v. Wade was overturned two years ago. 

The Hill reached out to the Trump campaign for comment.