US Senator Elizabeth Warren has accused Donald Trump of trying to get it “the wrong way” with in vitro fertilization (IVF), two days after the former president vowed to force health insurers or the federal government to pay for the treatments if he is elected in November.
Speaking on MSNBC, Warren said Trump was simply adjusting his positions to what he saw his audience’s preference was.
“So when he thinks he’s speaking to his radical base, he says, ‘How radical do you need me to be?’ Warren, Democrat of Massachusetts, said Saturday.
“Donald Trump goes there and goes further. But when he’s talking to the vast majority of Americans who strongly oppose this radical approach to abortion and IVF, he tries to change his line and then gets upset when both parties now start talking to him about it.
The Republican nominee in November’s presidential election has recast his position on IVF as a staunch supporter of the expensive treatment — a characterization Democrats reject, accusing him of changing his position only after U.S. voters have expressed broad support for reproductive rights.
Likewise, Democrats accuse Trump of changing abortion rights. On Friday, she said she would vote against a vote in her home state of Florida that would protect abortion rights more than six weeks after a backlash from conservative supporters.
A day earlier, Trump shocked abortion opponents when he told NBC News he supported the measure. “You need more than six weeks,” said Trump, who has repeatedly touted how his three nominees to the U.S. Supreme Court created a conservative supermajority to repeal federal abortion rights in 2022.
“I’ve disagreed with it ever since the primary when I heard about it.”
Kamala Harris issued a statement saying her opponent was “just making her position on abortion very clear.”
“He’s voting to keep a ban on abortion so strict that it goes into effect before many women even know they’re pregnant,” Harris said.
On Saturday, Warren accused Trump of playing IVF games.
He said, “Do you believe me? He also supports—and it’s in his platform, too—that IVF be virtually banned across the United States. Sorry, Donald, I can’t have it both ways.”
Warren also accused the former president of a lack of principles — which she says is why women don’t trust him.
“There’s no principle here for her other than, ‘Does it help Donald Trump?'” Warren said. “That’s her only guiding principle, and the women of America have literally called her out on it and said we’re not going to trust Donald Trump.”