Conservative commentator Scott Jennings was quickly challenged for calling former President Donald Trump a “champion” for in vitro fertilization during a heated exchange on a CNN panel this week.
During a Monday night appearance on “NewsNight with Abby Phillip,” Jennings was defending the Republican presidential nominee’s stance on women’s reproductive rights when he described Trump’s position on the issue as a “very moderate, center-right, longstanding Republican position that goes back to [Ronald] Reagan.”
“He’s pro-life, he believes in some moderate limits on weeks, he believes in the three exceptions for rape, incest and life of the mother,” Jennings said.
“He has been a champion, a champion for IVF,” he continued before Catherine Rampell, an op-ed columnist and fellow panelist, interjected.
“He has not. I’m sorry, I need to interrupt here,” Rampell said.
“You don’t need to interrupt, because you’re wrong,” Jennings replied as the two spoke over each other.
“Look at his actual record,” Rampell later said, noting Trump’s past efforts to repeal Obamacare and eliminate “all essential health benefits, all requirements for insurers to cover any sort of health care that would include IVF.”
Trump has been trying to position himself as a strong advocate for IVF.
He vowed in August, without providing details, that he would have insurance companies or the federal government pay for fertility treatments. And last week, he inexplicably called himself the “father of IVF” during a Fox News women’s town hall event.
But Trump has been criticized for this by his opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris, and other Democrats due to his role in potentially threatening reproductive health care, including IVF, in conservative states.
Trump appointed Supreme Court justices who overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022, ending the constitutional right to abortion.
Earlier this year, the Alabama Supreme Court ruled that frozen embryos should legally be considered “children,” spurring fertility clinics in the state to halt IVF treatments. The state legislature passed a bill to protect IVF treatments in Alabama shortly after.
During a rally in Wisconsin last week, Harris accused Trump, who has boasted about his role in helping to overturn Roe v. Wade, of being “responsible” for IVF treatments “at risk” in states.
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