President Trump is being pilloried for comments aired Wednesday during which the former president called himself “the father of IVF,” referring to the infertility treatments that were briefly made illegal in Alabama earlier this year. The 45th president is trying to convince women that he supports the practice, though many Republicans in Congress have made clear they would not back protecting the treatment under federal law. 

“I wanna talk about IVF,” Trump said at a Fox News town hall event focused on women that was filmed Tuesday and aired Wednesday. “I’m the father of IVF so I wanna hear this question.”

The Alabama supreme court, in a decision earlier this year, outlawed in vitro fertilization under the Dobbs precedent, which forced the state legislature and the governor to adopt a new statute that guaranteed access for families in the state. The event set off fears that IVF could be banned by other states, or even by Republicans if they gained control of Washington. 

Vice President Harris was quick to jump on Trump’s comments Wednesday. “Donald Trump called himself ‘the father of IVF.‘ What is he talking about?’” Ms. Harris wrote on X. “His abortion bans have already jeopardized access to it in states across the country — and his own platform could end IVF altogether.”

While speaking to reporters on an airport tarmac on Wednesday, Ms. Harris called Trump’s comments “quite bizarre,” adding: “If what he meant is taking responsibility, then yeah, he should take responsibility for the fact that one in three women in America lives in a Trump abortion ban state.”

Governor Walz’s wife, Gwen Walz, also spoke out against Trump’s Fox News town hall comments. She and her husband used a separate fertility treatment called IUI to get pregnant, though Mr. Walz at one point claimed that the couple had used IVF. 

“In fact, and I can hardly believe this … he called himself ‘the father of IVF,’” Ms. Walz said at a campaign event in Georgia on Wednesday, eliciting boos from the crowd. “More like the father of Georgia’s abortion ban.”

Senator Britt of Alabama was one of the first GOP senators to come out to say that she would try to move legislation to ensure the procedure remains legal. Her bill, the IVF Protection Act, which was introduced with Senator Cruz, would pull Medicaid funding from state that adopted legislation to ban IVF. Ms. Britt’s bill gained no support from Democrats because she had added some exemptions so that religious groups could not be compelled to fund or be in any way involved with IVF procedures due to moral objections. 

Trump said during his Fox town hall that Ms. Britt had to explain to him what IVF was after her state briefly banned the practice. 

“I got a call from Katie Britt — a young, just a fantastically attractive person from Alabama. She’s a senator,” he said. “I didn’t know [the courts] were even involved … I said, ‘Explain IVF very quickly,’ and within about two minutes I understood it.”

Trump has promised that he would not ban IVF as president and has even said insurance or possibly even the government could be involved in paying for it, though some unforced errors by Republicans have kept the issue in the spotlight. Shortly after the Alabama court decision, Senate Democrats introduced legislation to make IVF accessible nationwide, but it was blocked by Republicans in the chamber.

When Senator Schumer put a bill up for a vote just a few weeks later, nearly every Republican senator voted against it. Senator Vance didn’t show up to cast a vote.