former president donald erase On Tuesday he greeted a room full of people who might have been his dream audience: women he seemingly adored.
The screams and applause seem confusing, considering Trump’s history and impact on women. He was found guilty of sexual assault against a woman. He was convicted of 34 felonies related to buying the silence of a porn star accused of cheating on his wife. And he appointed three of the five justices who overruled. Roe v. Warde has since caused a medical catastrophe and put vulnerable women at risk.
But his presence at the all-female Georgia town hall hosted by Fox News’ Harris Faulkner is significant when we recognize that Trump (understandably) has a big problem with female voters. Harris has a 14-point lead between them, according to an NBC News national poll released this weekend. (Trump seems to be aware of the problem. See, for example, his all-caps late-night meltdown on Truth Social last month, in which he essentially, and incredibly, will make women great again if re-elected.) I promised I would.)
As attendees of the Georgia town hall taped on Tuesday made clear, Trump’s issues with women have a lot to do with his role in restricting abortion access nationwide and the ramifications of that (including threats to IVF access). Often involves embryo disposal.
When audiences confronted him about these implications, which became apparent in Alabama earlier this year, Trump repeated his usual pun on reproductive rights falsehoods, including one he claimed “every legal scholar” wants to hear. roe As I’ve covered, it has been dismissed (and easily debunked) that Republicans are the “party of IVF,” despite the fact that they have twice blocked votes on bills protecting IVF access nationwide. (The GOP supports IVF and says the bill is unnecessary.)
But Trump also introduced new lies at the town hall. He claimed that he was the “father of IVF.”
“I want to talk about IVF,” President Trump said before being asked how an abortion ban could affect infertility treatment. “I would like to hear this question because I am an IVF father.” (He then called Sen. Katie Britt (R-Ala.), who he said taught him what IVF was, and said, “It’s really fascinating.”)
If you’re wondering what on earth he could have meant, you’re not alone. Trump is definitely not creator It’s about reproductive technology (it was a British doctor named Robert Edward in 1978). And Trump has never said that any of his five children were born through IVF. In a statement provided to mother jonesCaroline Levitt, the Trump campaign’s national spokeswoman, dismissed the comments as “a joke made by President Trump as he passionately answered a question about IVF while strongly supporting access to widespread fertility treatments for women and families.” She did not respond to questions about whether Trump supported the Democratic-led IVF bill, which Republicans have twice blocked, or how his proposals to force the government or private insurance companies to fund IVF would actually work ( Estimates suggest it could cost around $8 billion). .
Harris immediately applauded, calling Trump’s comments “very strange” and saying, “If he means taking responsibility, then he should be held accountable for the fact that one in three American women lives in a country where Trump banned abortion.” . .”
Jenny Lawson, executive director of Planned Parenthood Votes, said in a statement that Trump’s claims were “disturbing” and that “Trump may try to pander to women on issues like IVF, but he only cares about himself.” “He added. On the other hand, female voters are very interested in reproductive rights. The NBC poll found that while Trump and Harris are in a close race overall, with approval ratings of 48% each, voters said abortion was their biggest motivating factor and preferred Harris. They voted for Trump on this issue, 53% to 34%.
But Trump seems to be living in an alternate reality. that The best candidate for reproductive rights. “We want to make amends, that’s for the best. “The Democrats have tried to attack us on this and we are much more involved in IVF than they are,” he said at the town hall. “So we are completely in favor.”
