Former President Donald Trump answered questions from women voters during a Fox News town hall in Georgia on Wednesday and called himself the “father of in vitro fertilization” while discussing the infertility treatment that gained attention after an Alabama judge’s ruling earlier this year.
The presidential candidate of the Republican Party – as he also calls himself “defender” of women — sought to win over a critical voting bloc as he and Vice President Kamala Harris went head-to-head in a race largely marked by gender difference.
During the event, Trump met with a warm crowd in Cumming, Georgia, a suburb of Atlanta Fox News has settled as focused on “women’s issues”.
The former president did it many false claims throughout town hall hosted by Fox News’ Harris Faulkner and often gave long-winded answers to questions about the economy, immigration and abortion.
About abortion and in vitro fertilization
Trump has crossed a fine line on abortion in recent months, often zigzagging through his positions, although he now claims to be veto a federal abortion ban.
During his administration, Trump appointed three U.S. Supreme Court justices who all voted to overturn Roe v. Wade, ending nearly half a century of constitutional rights to abortion.
Asked by an audience member why the government was “committing to women’s fundamental rights,” Trump replied that abortion was “now back in the states.” The conservative justices actually wrote that ending Roe v. Wade meant “returning the power to regulate abortion to the people and their elected representatives,” including Congress and the president.
Trump noted that abortion restrictions in some states are “too tight” and predicted that those measures “will be changed because there is already a movement in those states.”
He said he believed in “exceptions for rape, incest and the life of the mother.”
Trump, in announcing his leadership on IVF, also said “we truly are the party of IVF.” However, Republicans in Congress prevented the development of legislation regarding in vitro fertilization, among others attempt by U.S. Senate Democrats in March to expand access for military service members and veterans.
Senate Republicans in September blocked A Democratic bill that could prevent states from enacting “harmful or unreasonable restrictions” on infertility procedures and expand access for service members and veterans.
Trump, however, insisted at the town hall that his party supports in vitro fertilization. “We want fertilization and it’s totally possible, and the Democrats tried to attack us on this issue, and we’re for in vitro fertilization even more than they are, so we’re totally for it,” he said.
Contrary to Trump’s claims, he is the “father of in vitro fertilization” – it was started in 1978 by a gynecologist and scientist, one of whom won the Nobel Prize.
Alabama ruling
The debate over in vitro fertilization erupted in Alabama earlier this year following a ruling by the Alabama Supreme Court issued an opinion in February that frozen embryos constitute children under state law.
The ruling forced the state’s in vitro fertilization clinics to cease operations until the state Legislature passed passed the act providing these clinics with criminal and civil protection.
Trump a few days after the verdict he called Alabama lawmakers “found an immediate solution,” and national Republicans running for Congress also sought to distance themselves from the controversial Alabama decision.
Trump, replaying the town hall event schedule, said: “I got a call from Katie Britt, a teenage, just fantastically attractive person from Alabama. “She’s a senator and she called me ’emergency’ because an Alabama judge ruled that IVF clinics are illegal and must be closed.” Britt, a Republican and U.S. Senate member from Alabama, was also elected provide State of the Union response to President Joe Biden.
Trump continued: “I said, ‘Explain in vitro fertilization very quickly,’ and after about two minutes I understood. I said, “No, no, we are totally in favor of IVF.” Within an hour I made a statement, a really powerful statement, in the presence of some experts, a really powerful statement. And we fully supported the Republican Party, the entire party. (The) Alabama Legislature overturned that decision a day later, which means they approved it… the judge essentially approved it.
Harris he replied On Wednesday, Trump referred to herself as the “father of in vitro fertilization,” saying she found it “pretty weird.”
“And if he meant taking responsibility, then yes, he should take responsibility for the fact that 1 in 3 women in America lives in a state with Trump’s abortion ban,” she said.
On immigration and border security
Immigration was a major topic of the town hall, and Trump repeated several false claims on the issue, including that Harris had been named a “border czar.”
While President Joe Biden has tasked Harris with addressing the “root causes” of migration in Central America in 2021, he has not given her the title of “border czar.” The U.S. Department of Homeland Security is responsible for border security.
Trump also repeated his promise to ban all sanctuary cities, stating that they are “really designed for one purpose: to protect criminals” and “that’s what they have become.” These cities have declared their resistance to cooperating with federal immigration authorities.
“We’re going to dismantle all the sanctuary cities in the United States and get back to normal, and we’re going to have law and order… we’ve got to revitalize our police,” he said.
About the economy and energy
Trump also said that under his administration, the United States had “the largest economy in the country’s history.”
This claim turned out to be false when evaluating factors such as the unemployment rate, annual gross domestic product growth and wage growth during his presidency compared to other administrations, according to Political fact.
He also repeated his plans to eliminate taxes on Social Security benefits and cut energy costs in half if re-elected.
Harris’ pre-buttock campaign
Before Trump’s town hall, the Harris campaign held a press conference call Tuesday with Georgia Democratic senators Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff and members of Amber Thurman’s family. AND ProPublicy investigation linked Georgia’s restrictive abortion law to Thurman’s death.
Ossoff said that in Trump, “you have the architect of a nationwide campaign to overturn Wade v. Wade and end decades of protections for women’s health care privacy and doctors’ ability to provide the care they need – and in Vice President Harris’ case, you have a clear and leading commitment to defend the health of pregnant women and enable doctors to provide the care they need.”
Harris was scheduled to speak at a campaign event in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, on Wednesday. She was also scheduled to appear in an interview with Fox News’ Bret Baier that aired Wednesday.
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