For Tim Walz, Vice President Kamala Harris’ running mate, the fight for in vitro fertilization (IVF) procedures isn’t just about politics — it’s about your own family.
The Minnesota governor opens up about how he and his wife, Gwen Walz, conceived their children Hope, 23, and Gus, 17, during a challenging IVF journey. Now he’s sharing his personal experience with voters on the country’s biggest political stage, while the future of the procedure hangs in the balance.
The Harris-Walz campaign has made clear that protecting the rights to abortion, in vitro fertilization and fertility treatment are political priorities if they win the White House in November. The issues gained new urgency after the Supreme Court struck down Roe v. in 2022 and the Alabama Supreme Court ruled in February that frozen embryos have the legal rights of children.
After bipartisan resistance, Alabama lawmakers passed laws protecting IVF providers so services could resume in the state. But with the future of IVF uncertain in states that have fetal personhood laws, Democrats and reproductive rights advocates believe Walz’s ability to speak from personal experience will be a powerful asset to the ticket.
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“Voters respond when politicians are able to demonstrate not only that they understand how important it is that we restore these rights and these freedoms, but they also understand what voters are going through, and that speaks to their own personal values,” he says. Jessica Mackler, president of EMILYs List, an influential political organization that seeks to elect pro-choice women. “And so if voters are hearing these stories, they’re looking at someone and saying, ‘This is someone I can trust to lead on this issue.’”
Walz spoke about in vitro fertilization in his first appearance with Harris since she chose him as her running mate, at a rally in Philadelphia on Tuesday. He said IVF is “personal” for him and recounted the many emotions he felt while undergoing fertility treatments. “I remember praying every night for a call with good news, the pit in my stomach when the phone rang, and the agony when we learned the treatments hadn’t worked,” Walz told the crowd. “So it was no coincidence that when we welcomed our daughter into the world, we named her Hope.”
Walz then tied his personal experience to the campaign’s commitments to reproductive rights as a whole, saying that when he and Harris talk about freedom, they “refer to the freedom to make your own decisions about health care.”
Walz’s remarks are already resonating with voters. Brittany Stuart, a Virginia resident whose 5-year-old son was conceived through in vitro fertilization in Alabama, says she sees in Walz not just a politician but someone who understands “how difficult it is to have a child.” Stuart says she He underwent three years of fertility treatment and still has a frozen embryo in Alabama.
“Infertility is hard enough on families, so to demonize it even further is like, why are we doing this?” Stuart says. “So to hear Walz talk openly about his daughter… says a lot.” Stuart says her work in news has prevented her from publicly supporting or donating to a candidate previously, but she plans to donate to the Harris-Walz ticket.
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Walz’s experience with IVF is also clearly important to Harris’ campaign; his biography on the campaign website says that their personal connection “further cements[s] their commitment to ensuring that all Americans have access to this care.”
Although Walz is being introduced to a wider group of Americans this week, this isn’t the first time he’s publicly discussed his family’s IVF journey.
Following the Alabama Supreme Court ruling in February, Walz took to Facebook to express their disappointment, again pointing to their children as examples of IVF success. “Don’t let these guys get away with saying they support IVF when their handpicked judges oppose it,” Walz said in the post. “Actions speak louder than words and your actions are clear. They are bringing an anti-science government into your exam room, bedroom and classroom.”
Former president donald trump, the Republican nominee in 2024, appointed a series of conservative judges to the judicial branch during his first term, including three of the U.S. Supreme Court justices who ruled to nullify the constitutional right to abortion. This year, Trump criticized the Alabama decision and expressed support for in vitro fertilization. Trump’s running mate, Ohio Senator J.D. Vance, previously voted against the Right to IVF Act, which would have expanded national access to fertility treatment, although he supported a separate Republican-led bill that would have removed Medicaid funding from states that prohibit in vitro fertilization. Vance recently came under fire for his comments about the Democratic Party as a party of “childless babes.”
According to a Pew Research Center Survey carried out in April, seven in ten adults believe that access to IVF is “a good thing”, while just 8% say it is a “bad thing”.
With this political backdrop, there’s even more pressure on Walz — he’s in the hot seat now that he’s been chosen to be an IVF advocate, says Barbara Collura, president of RESOLVE: The National Fertility Association. “We love raising public awareness about this, but I can tell you that it’s not enough to say you support IVF,” says Collura. “Just talking about it doesn’t give people insurance coverage.”
Collura knows Walz’s story well. RESOLVE is a nonprofit patient advocacy organization that offers support groups, public awareness campaigns, and public policy surrounding insurance coverage for IVF. They also have an annual “Advocate Day” in which members of their community come together to speak to members of Congress – an event Walz spoke at in 2017. “Anytime someone is brave enough to stand up and speak out about your history of infertility, this will make a huge difference to those of us who have been through it,” says Collura.
Marilyn Gomez, who is seeking fertility treatment in North Carolina, hopes Walz’s opening will bring reproductive rights to the forefront not just nationally, but in the 13 gubernatorial races and many state elections in 2024. She says it’s difficult get excited, but she is “cautiously optimistic.”
“There are a lot of people who don’t know that IVF is on the table,” says Gomez. “Last night, when I watched [the rally] live, it was very moving, but I also couldn’t believe that in 2024 we’re still talking about this.”
This story originally appeared on Time.com read the full story
