By James Oliphant and Helen Coster
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump said on Thursday he will require the government or insurance companies to pay for IVF fertility treatments if he is elected in November, a move aimed at appealing to women and suburban voters.
“Your government will pay for or your insurance company will be mandated to pay for all costs associated with IVF treatment fertilization for women,” the former president told supporters at a campaign event in Potterville, Michigan.
Trump also said his administration would push for allowing new parents to deduct “major newborn expenses” from their taxes.
“We want more babies,” Trump said.
Trump will face Democrat Kamala Harris in the Nov. 5 election. A Reuters/Ipsos poll published on Thursday showed Vice President Harris picking up support among women voters.
Not all states currently require insurance companies to cover IVF, which involves combining eggs and sperm in a laboratory dish to create an embryo for couples having difficulty conceiving. Even with coverage, IVF is an expensive process that can cost thousands of dollars in drugs and medical procedures.
IVF has emerged as a hot button issue in this election, as Republicans nationwide have scrambled to contain backlash from a decision by the Alabama Supreme Court, which ruled in February that embryos were children.
That ruling left it unclear how to legally store, transport and use embryos, prompting some IVF patients to consider moving their frozen embryos out of the state.
Trump did not elaborate on how his administration would cover the cost of IVF treatments and the changes to the U.S. tax code, or whether he would seek congressional action on his proposals.
(Reporting by Helen Coster and James Oliphant; Additional reporting by Katharine Jackson; Editing by Kanishka Singh, Colleen Jenkins and Daniel Wallis)
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