Trump adds new campaign pledge to get IVF paid for by government or covered by insurance
(LA CROSSE, Wis.) — Former President Donald Trump introduced a new campaign platform on Thursday aimed at helping Americans with the cost of IVF.
At a town hall moderated by his supporter, one-time Democrat presidential candidate Tulsi Gabbard, Trump said he and his team have been exploring ways to help those wanting in vitro fertilization.
“I’ve been looking at it, and what we’re going to do is for people that are using IVF, which is fertilization … the government is going to pay for it, or we’re going to get — we’ll mandate your insurance company to pay for it, which is going to be great. We’re going to do that,” he told Gabbard.
“We want to produce babies in this country, right?” he added.
Trump first spoke about the idea of government-funded or insurance-covered fertility treatments earlier in the day during a campaign stop in the battleground state of Michigan.
When asked by NBC News if it would be the government or insurance companies paying for IVF, the network reported that Trump said it would be the latter, “under a mandate.”
Meanwhile, Trump’s camp on Thursday night walked back comments the former president made earlier in the day suggesting he did not support Florida’s now-implemented six-week ban on abortions.
“I think the six week is too short, there has to be more time and I told them I want more weeks,” Trump told NBC.
“I am going to be voting that we need more than six weeks,” he added, noting that he believes abortion should be a states’ issue, something he’s said before.
Later, though, Trump Campaign National Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt attempted to clarify the candidate’s remarks.
“President Trump has not yet said how he will vote on the ballot initiative in Florida, he simply reiterated that he believes six weeks is too short,” Leavitt said in a statement.
Susan B. Anthony, Pro-Life America, President Marjorie Dannenfelser also released a statement Thursday night saying she had spoken to the president, and he told her he hasn’t “committed” to how he’ll vote on Florida’s Amendment 4. The amendment, if passed, would insert language into the state’s constitution that abortions determined medically necessary by a patient’s healthcare provider would be permitted.
“He has not committed to how he will vote on Amendment 4. President Trump has consistently opposed abortions after five months of pregnancy. Amendment 4 would allow abortion past this point. Voting for Amendment 4 completely undermines his position,” her statement read.
(WASHINGTON) — During the presidential debate Tuesday, former President Donald Trump criticized Vice President Kamala Harris on her support for taxpayer-funded medical care for transgender individuals.
“Now she wants to do transgender operations on illegal aliens that are in prison,” Trump said. “This is a radical left liberal that would do this.”
The comment was the only mention of the LGBTQ+ community on the debate stage.
Trump’s comments appear to refer to a 2019 American Civil Liberties Union questionnaire filled out by then-Sen. Harris during her first presidential bid.
The questionnaire asked: “As President, will you use your executive authority to ensure that transgender and nonbinary people who rely on the state for medical care — including those in prison and immigration detention — will have access to comprehensive treatment associated with gender transition, including all necessary surgical care? If yes, how will you do so?”
She responded yes, adding that “it is important that transgender individuals who rely on the state for care receive the treatment they need, which includes access to treatment associated with gender transition.”
She noted that as the California state attorney general, she backed the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation decision to provide gender transition surgery to state inmates.
In 2015, while Harris was the attorney general, California and the Transgender Law Center reached a historic settlement to move a transgender woman inmate to a women’s correctional facility and provide her with transgender medical care that had been deemed medically necessary by several medical and mental health clinicians, according to the settlement agreement.
The case was hailed by LGBTQ activists, who said it would impact incarcerated trans people nationwide.
Harris’ response in the ACLU questionnaire continued, adding that she supported policies to allow federal inmates to obtain “medically necessary care for gender transition” while incarcerated.
“I will direct all federal agencies responsible for providing essential medical care to deliver transition treatment,” she wrote.
Harris has not publicly changed her position on the transgender care issue. ABC News has reached out to the Harris campaign for comment.
Harris and Trump policies on gender-affirming care
The Harris-Walz campaign has not officially released any policy proposals or promises concerning gender-affirming care so far. However, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz signed an executive order in May protecting and supporting access to gender-affirming health care for LGBTQ people in the state.
In his order, Walz notes that numerous medical organizations, including the American Medical Association, the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have said that access to gender-affirming care is essential to the health and wellness of gender diverse people.
Studies by researchers at Boston Children Hospital, Massachusetts General Hospital, and published by the American Psychological Association have shown that gender-affirming care can be life-saving for transgender and nonbinary children and adolescents, promoting positive mental and physical health and well-being.
The order came amid a wave of legislation from conservative lawmakers that has led to at least 26 states implementing policies that restrict gender-affirming care for transgender youth.
Supporters of trans care bans argue that children and their families should wait until they’re older to make decisions about their gender and health.
The Biden-Harris administration has also signaled support for transgender Americans, reversing a Trump-era ban on transgender military service and revising Title IX to include protections for gender identity.
In one statement to nonprofit news organization The 19th, the White House said that gender-affirming surgeries should be limited to adults — as is typically the case — but supports gender-affirming care for minors.
Trump has said that he plans to ban taxpayer funding for sex-change surgeries — which would include gender-affirming care for detainees — and bar schools from “promoting gender transition.”
He also stated that he would reverse the Title IX revisions concerning gender identity.
LGBTQ issues have been front and center on both national and state political arenas. More than 500 bills impacting the LGBTQ community have been considered in the U.S. this year, according to the ACLU.
LGBTQ advocacy group GLAAD criticized the lack of attention on LGBTQ issues on the debate stage.
“The debate included only one mention of LGBTQ Americans, a smear against transgender people that went unchallenged,” said GLAAD President and CEO Sarah Kate Ellis in a statement. “As Americans begin returning ballots and line up for early voting, reporters must remember that the next President of the United States will have a profound impact on the LGBTQ community and all marginalized people. We urge reporters to ask leaders for specific ways they will ensure we are always welcome and safe.”
(WASHINGTON) — After months of delays, a federal judge in Washington, D.C., is scheduled to hold a hearing Thursday that could determine the trajectory of former President Donald Trump’s election interference case.
U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan is expected to consider competing proposals for how the case should proceed following the Supreme Court’s recent ruling granting broad immunity for official acts taken by presidents.
Thursday’s hearing will mark the first time lawyers for Trump and special counsel Jack Smith set foot in Chutkan’s courtroom since last fall. Trump’s lawyers successfully delayed the case — which was originally set to go to trial in March — by appealing their claim of presidential immunity to the Supreme Court, whose ruling dramatically altered the legal landscape for the former president.
In a superseding indictment handed up last week, Smith attempted to revise his case against the former president by trimming out any allegations related to Trump’s official duties — which would be exempt from prosecution following the Supreme Court’s ruling — while keeping the same four criminal charges that Trump faced in his original indictment.
“The Defendant had no official responsibilities related to the certification proceeding, but he did have a personal interest as a candidate in being named the winner of the election,” the new indictment said.
Trump, who is not expected to appear at Thursday’s hearing in person, has directed his attorneys to plead not guilty on his behalf.
In addition to making minor changes to clarify Trump’s actions were undertaken in a private capacity, prosecutors removed the once-central allegation that Trump attempted to use the Department of Justice to support his false claims about election fraud. The indictment also removed details about Trump’s conduct while rioters stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6 — including refusing to call off the rioters — and some examples of advisers directly correcting Trump about his false claims of election fraud.
In a joint filing last week, prosecutors told Judge Chutkan that the revisions to the indictment ensured the Supreme Court’s protections for official acts would not apply to the new case, which distinguishes Trump’s “private electioneering activity” from “official action.”
Defense attorneys disagreed, arguing in the same filing that prosecutors wrongly included allegations that are subject to presidential immunity and that they misused a federal obstruction statute.
“We believe, and expect to demonstrate, that this case must end as a matter of law,” defense attorneys wrote.
While the Supreme Court’s decision broadly expanded the scope of presidential immunity — conferring absolute immunity for core presidential powers and a presumption of immunity for all other official acts — the court declined to fully apply its decision to the facts alleged in Trump’s indictment, and instead tasked Chutkan with conducting a “fact-specific analysis” to determine whether the former president’s conduct was official or unofficial.
Prosecutors and defense attorneys disagreed about the best way for Chutkan to proceed following the Supreme Court’s decision, with Smith urging Chutkan to address the immunity question “first and foremost” through a series of paper briefings, according to Friday’s joint filing.
Defense attorneys, in contrast, urged Chutkan to first consider whether the case should be thrown out on the grounds that Smith was illegally appointed — the same argument used by a federal judge in Florida to dismiss the former president’s classified documents case — before taking up the question of presidential immunity in a schedule that could stretch the proceedings into the new year.
Thursday’s hearing is likely to offer the first indication of how Chutkan plans to address the long-delayed case ahead of the November election and apply the Supreme Court’s landmark ruling.
Addressing reporters Wednesday on the topic of election interference, Attorney General Merrick Garland defended Smith’s decision to bring a superseding indictment two months ahead of the November election, saying that he is “quite confident” that Smith observed DOJ policies related to elections.
“I stand by the actions of the special counsel,” Garland said. “The superseding indictment is an effort to respond to the direct instructions of the Supreme Court as to how to effectuate a new indictment in an ongoing case.”
Trump, meanwhile, has continued to defend his efforts to overturn the election results.
“Whoever heard you get indicted for interfering with a presidential election where you have every right to do it?” Trump said in a Fox News interview that aired this past Sunday.
(WASHINGTON) — Vice President Kamala Harris will hold a fundraiser in Los Angeles on Sept. 29, according to an invite obtained by ABC News — just a few days after former President Barack Obama and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton host fundraisers for her in the same area.
According to the Sept. 29 invite, tickets range from $500 to $1 million — with the $500 tickets already sold out. The pricier tickets include a reception with Harris, a “liberty luncheon” and a photo opportunity.
Obama and Clinton will also be holding separate Los Angeles fundraisers for the vice president on Sept. 20, according to an invite and a source familiar with the planning.
Clinton’s fundraiser will be a lunchtime appearance with guests such as actresses Jamie Lee Curtis and Sally Field in attendance. Obama’s fundraiser will be a nighttime fundraiser on the same day.
Obama will begin to hold larger campaign events for Harris beginning next month as well as candidate-specific events for down-ballot races, the source said.
Harris’ fundraiser, first reported by Deadline, marks her first fundraising appearance in the Los Angeles area since she announced her campaign.
Obama, George Clooney and Julia Roberts hosted a fundraiser for then-candidate President Joe Biden in June in Los Angeles, which raised $30 million for Biden’s campaign.
Harris’ campaign said it raised $361 million in August — her first full month as a candidate — from nearly three million donors. Former President Donald Trump’s campaign said it raised $130 million in August.
The campaign has been attempting to seize on to the momentum the debate garnered for the candidate by setting course on an intense campaign schedule they’re calling “A New Way Forward,” labeling themselves as “underdogs” despite poll numbers that suggest Harris fared better than Trump in the debate.
Americans by 58-36% say Harris won the debate — a reversal from the Biden-Trump match in June, which Trump was seen as winning by 66-28%, according to the latest ABC News/Ipsos poll.
Harris has several appearances scheduled for this week, including an event with the National Association of Black Journalists on Tuesday, a live-streamed event with Oprah Winfrey in Michigan on Thursday and campaign stops in Wisconsin on Friday.