Donald Trump says he supports IVF after Alabama ruling puts pressure on Republicans
- Justices in the conservative state have ruled that frozen embryos can be considered children, prompting some hospitals to pause in vitro fertilisation services
- The fallout has deepened divisions among Republican over abortion and other reproductive issues ahead of the coming election
Former US president Donald Trump said on Friday that he would “strongly support the availability of IVF” and called on lawmakers in Alabama to preserve access to the treatment.
It was his first comment since an Alabama Supreme Court ruling that led some providers in the state to suspend their in vitro fertilisation programmes and has left Republicans divided over the issue.
Trump, in a post on his Truth Social network, said: “Under my leadership, the Republican Party will always support the creation of strong, thriving, healthy American families. We want to make it easier for mothers and fathers to have babies, not harder!”
The comments come after a ruling by the all-Republican Alabama Supreme Court, among the nation’s most conservative judicial panels, that frozen embryos can be considered children under state law. Since then, some Alabama clinics and hospitals, including the University of Alabama at Birmingham health system, have announced pauses on IVF services.
The fallout has deepened divisions among conservatives over abortion and other reproductive services in a campaign year already fraught with debates over whether Republicans should pursue national abortion limits after the US Supreme Court’s 2022 ruling that overturned the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision that legalised abortion nationwide.
Trump and former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley, his last remaining major opponent for the 2024 nomination, have both cautioned against an absolute national ban.