Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D) often talks about he and his wife Gwen Walz undergoing years of fertility treatments before becoming parents, allowing him to shine a personal spotlight on a major Republican vulnerability.
“This gets personal for me and my family,” Walz said of reproductive care during his first rally with Harris earlier this month, recalling the pit in his stomach when the couple received updates on their efforts to have a child, and the agony of learning multiple rounds of treatment didn’t work.
The Harris campaign talked about the would-be second couple’s “fertility challenges” in its statement announcing the pick, saying the experience “further cement[ed] his commitment to ensuring all Americans have access to this care.”
IVF was pushed into the reproductive rights conversation this year when the conservative Supreme Court of Alabama ruled that frozen embryos could be considered the same as children in wrongful death lawsuits.
This led to clinics in Alabama temporarily halting IVF services, deeming them too risky in terms of potential litigation. While Alabama’s Legislature swiftly put together and passed legislation shielding IVF providers, it has remained a vexing issue for conservatives who believe life begins at conception.
“Now more than ever, voters are mobilizing behind candidates they trust to protect their reproductive freedoms,” Jessica Mackler, president of the political action committee EMILYs List, said in a statement to The Hill.
“And they trust candidates like Tim Walz, who have personal experiences with reproductive health care like IVF, to defend these rights because he knows exactly what Americans have to lose when Republicans interfere with our personal decisions.”
Though Republican lawmakers spoke up in support of IVF access, the ruling still opened them to attacks by Democrats who tied the ruling to state-level abortion bans.
Walz has said he and his wife used fertility treatments “like IVF” to have children. Neither his office or the Harris campaign provided additional details on those treatments.
“Gwen and I have two beautiful children because of reproductive health care like IVF. This issue is deeply personal to our family and so many others. Don’t let these guys get away with this by telling you they support IVF when their handpicked judges oppose it,” Walz said in a Facebook post following the Alabama ruling.
The Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 vision includes numerous proposals regarding reproductive issues, including banning medication abortions ,declaring abortion to not be health care and recognizing human life from the moment of conception.
While many Republicans express support for IVF, they have struggled to square those statements with the belief among many conservatives that fertilized embryos should be treated as children. Disposal of unused frozen embryos is a standard aspect of IVF services, and is why IVF clinics were caught in the legal crosshairs of Alabama judges.
The Trump-Vance campaign, like the broader Republican party heading into the 2024 election, has largely sought to sidestep issues related to abortion and reproductive rights, given how unpopular its anti-abortion agenda has proven among voters since Roe v. Wade was overturned two years ago.
According to a GOP strategist who spoke with The Hill, the Trump campaign had been doing well in neutralizing concerns over reproductive issues — before the addition of Ohio Sen. JD Vance (R) to the ticket.
“It’s the tone overall,” they said, noting Vance has made “some real missteps” in his approach to reproductive issues and women, such as resurfaced comments mocking women who are unable to have children as “childless cat ladies.”
“Doubling down in this, you know, bro podcast, alpha culture didn’t really help the case with particularly suburban women in places they need to win like Philadelphia and Atlanta and Phoenix,” the strategist added.
“Tim Walz being able to talk about an issue that is so personal to so many women, Republican and Democrat, with, you know, empathy and compassion — it’s not just about the issue itself. It’s about the tone.”
Vice President Harris’s campaign has made explicit efforts to paint Vance as being counter to IVF. On World IVF Day last month, the campaign sent out an email titled “Happy World IVF Day To Everyone Except JD Vance.”
“Today on this World IVF Day, JD Vance is driving away voters in droves, insulting couples struggling with infertility who are sounding off on his disparaging comments about ‘childless’ women,” the email read.
It pointed to Vance’s vote against a bill to protect IVF access (along with all other Republican senators) and his aim to protect life “from the date of conception,” which could in practice make IVF services harder to access.
When Harris took over the Democratic bid to stay in office, she brought a stronger degree of fluency on abortion and the addition of Walz only strengthened that.
“Walz provides this opportunity to really expand that conversation beyond just abortion, which is where it ends for a lot of people,” said Krishana Davis, executive vice president at the Democratic consulting firm Precision Strategies.
“The Republican Party, Trump. Vance … they can’t distance themselves from this very weird agenda of like reproductive oppression that they detailed in Project 2025,” she added. “They’ve shown that they not only want to, like, limit abortion in states but control all forms of reproductive choice, and that’s from everything from like your contraceptive to your fertility treatments.”
Trump has sought to distance himself from unspecified parts of the conservative vision laid out in Project 2025, though many of his former staffers were central to its drafting. Vance has also sought to moderate his own views on abortion to come into line with Trump, who says he supports exceptions for rape, incest and the life of his mother, and opposed a federal ban.
“As President Trump has consistently stated, he supports the rights of individuals in their respective states to determine their laws on abortion,” Karoline Leavitt, Trump Campaign National Press Secretary, said in a statement to The Hill.
“President Trump also strongly supports ensuring women have access to the care they need to create healthy families, including widespread access to IVF, birth control, and contraception, and he always will.”
Updated at 9:35 pm on Aug. 18.