Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump speaks during a rally at Clinton Middle School on Jan. 6, 2024 in Clinton, Iowa. Trump claimed during a town hall hosted by Fox News on Friday that his actions saved IVF in Alabama. However, the Legislature was already acting to address an Alabama Supreme Court decision that led IVF programs to suspend their services before Trump weighed in. (Scott Olson/Getty Images)
Former President Donald Trump Wednesday claimed credit for protecting in vitro fertilization (IVF) services in Alabama, saying the state Legislature moved to act quickly once he intervened.
However, Republican and Democratic legislators in the state were already moving to address a February Alabama Supreme Court ruling before the Republican presidential nominee weighed in.
In a Fox News town hall, Trump said he received a call from U.S. Sen. Katie Britt, a “young, just a fantastically attractive person,” who is also an attorney, a former chief of staff for U.S. Senator Richard Shelby and a former president and CEO of the Business Council of Alabama.
On February 16, the Alabama Supreme Court ruled that there was no exception for frozen embryos under an 1872 law allowing civil lawsuits for the wrongful death of children, or under a 2018 state constitutional amendment that required the state to “ensure the protection of the rights of the unborn child.” The court ruling led several IVF programs in the state to suspend operations.
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After speaking with her, Trump said he quickly released a statement supporting IVF, claiming that the Alabama Legislature acted the next day to approve it.
“And I said, explain IVF, very quickly, and within about two minutes, I understood it. I said, ‘No, no, we’re totally in favor of IVF.’ I came up with a statement within an hour, a really powerful statement, with some experts, really powerful. And we went totally in favor, the Republican Party, the whole party. Alabama Legislature, a day later, overturned, meaning approved it. Overturned — the judge essentially approved it,” Trump said in the town hall.
But legislators had begun working on the issue well before then.
Donald Trump issued a statement on February 23, a day after state Sen. Tim Melson, R-Florence, said he planned to file a bill that could add protections for IVF. The law, raced through the chambers and signed by Gov. Kay Ivey in early March, provides criminal and civil liability protections for IVF clinics for IVF services.
Melson said in an interview Wednesday that he knew he needed to act urgently out of concern for Alabamians.
“The Alabama legislative body knew that a rapid response needed to be done because of patients’ concerns and care,” he said. “And sure, there were several people throughout the country and talking about it, but that wasn’t our thought process.”
Messages seeking comment were left with Rep. Terri Collins, R-Decatur, who handled the bill in the House.
The same day that Melson filed his bill, Alabama House Democrats filed their own bill that would have declared that a fertilized egg or human embryo outside the human body is not a person, aiming to address one of the key parts of the Alabama Supreme Court decision.
In describing the call with Britt, Trump said that Britt told him “an Alabama judge had ruled that the IVF clinics were illegal and they have to be closed.”
The Supreme Court did not order clinics to be closed. Instead, some clinics did so out of fear of legal action.
Britt defended Trump in a statement Wednesday, saying “President Trump has been a strong and unwavering champion for IVF, which is profoundly pro-family.”
“Democrats know that IVF is legal and accessible in all 50 states, however they continue to focus on fearmongering. If Democrats were truly concerned about protecting IVF in the long term, Senate Democrats would not have blocked the IVF Protection Act for the second time last month,” Britt said in a statement.
Senate Democrats blocked a bill from Britt that would have blocked Medicaid funding from going to states that ban in vitro fertilization, and Republicans blocked an effort by Democrats the next day that would have provided people the right to IVF and for doctors to provide that health care without the state or federal government interference.
Britt also said that “if Democrats were truly concerned about protecting IVF in the long term, Senate Democrats would not have blocked the IVF Protection Act for the second time last month.”
Both parties rejected each other’s proposals in September, with two Republicans — Maine’s Susan Collins and Alaska’s Lisa Murkowski — voted with Democrats.
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