US Senator Elizabeth Warren accused Donald Trump of trying to “do both” with in vitro fertilization (IVF), two days after the former president promised to force health insurance companies or the federal government to pay for treatment if he is elected in November.
Speaking on MSNBC, Warren said Trump is simply tailoring his position to suit what he thinks his audience prefers.
“So when he thinks he's talking to his radical base, he's saying, 'How radical do you want me to be?'” Warren, a Massachusetts Democrat, said Saturday.
“Donald Trump will go there and go further. But when he talks to the vast majority of Americans who are staunchly opposed to this radical approach to abortion and IVF, he tries to change his tone and then gets shocked when every side criticizes him for it.”
The Republican presidential nominee in November reversed his position on IVF, saying he was a strong supporter of the expensive treatment. Democrats reject that characterization, accusing him of changing his position only after U.S. voters expressed broad support for reproductive rights.
Democrats are similarly accusing Trump of changing his position on abortion rights. On Friday, he said he would vote against a bill in his home state of Florida that would protect abortion rights for more than six weeks after facing backlash from conservative supporters.
A day earlier, Trump upset anti-abortion activists when he told NBC News he supported the measure. “You need more time than six weeks,” said Trump, who has repeatedly bragged about how his three appointees to the U.S. Supreme Court created a conservative supermajority that would overturn federal abortion rights in 2022.
“I didn't agree with it from the very beginning of the primaries, as soon as I heard about it.”
Kamala Harris issued a statement saying her opponent “just made his position on abortion crystal clear.”
“He will vote to uphold an abortion ban so strict that it will go into effect before many women even know they are pregnant,” Harris said.
On Saturday, Warren accused Trump of playing around with IVF.
She said, “Are you kidding? He also supports — and it's in his platform — that IVF would be effectively banned throughout the United States. Sorry, Donald, you can't have it both ways.”
Warren also accused the former president of lacking principles, which is why, she said, women don't trust him.
“He has no principles here other than, ‘Is this going to help Donald Trump?’” Warren said. “That’s his only guiding principle, and American women are just openly defying him and saying, we’re not going to trust Donald Trump.”