Republican strategist Scott Jennings clashed with Washington Post columnist Catherine Rampell Monday night over former President Donald Trump’s support of in-vitro fertilization (IVF).
Trump vowed to make IVF free if elected during an August campaign event in Michigan. Rampell expressed skepticism about Trump’s position while on a panel during “CNN News Night.”
“Donald Trump’s not running for state representative in any particular state. He is running for president, and he’s made his position on this very clear,” Jennings said. “He’s got a very moderate, center-right, long-standing Republican position that goes back to 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. He has been a champion, a champion for IVF.”
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“He has not. I’m sorry, I need to interrupt —” Rampell said before Jennings interjected. “He absolutely has. You don’t need to interrupt because you‘re wrong. He has been a champion in the party for speaking for IVF.”
Trump called for IVF to be protected after the Alabama Supreme Court ruled on Feb. 16 that frozen embryos resulting from successful IVF procedures would be viewed as unborn children during a case involving three families suing a medical facility that destroyed the embryos. The Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal by the medical facility on Oct. 7.
“People watching, I wrote about this like two weeks ago, you can look at —” Rampell said, as Jennings interrupted, saying, “I listen to what he says all the time. He has —”
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“I look at his record. I look at his record,” Rampell responded as someone else tried to cut in, later adding, “Look at his actual record. For example, his recent statement saying, ‘Oh, we‘re going to make insurers cover IVF,’ you know that he led the initiative to repeal ObamaCare, which got rid of all essential health benefits, all requirements for insurers to cover any sort of health care. That would include IVF.”
Rampell cited legislation proposed by Democrats to protect IVF, which Jennings dismissed as a “sham vote.”
Republican Rep. Nancy Mace of South Carolina also introduced legislation to protect access to IVF and other fertility treatments shortly after the Alabama Supreme Court’s ruling.
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First published by the Daily Caller News Foundation.