Kamala’s running mate has repeatedly referred to his family’s “IVF journey,” but his wife today clarified that they were never on one.
Tim Walz’s wife said the couple used a considerably less invasive IUI procedure, which does not require the collection or destruction of embryos. The destruction of fertilized embryos is a point of contempt with the procedure among anti-abortion advocates.
“Like so many who have experienced these challenges, we kept it largely to ourselves at the time – not even sharing the details with our wonderful and close family,” Gwen Walz said in a statement. “She was a nurse and helped me with the shots I needed as part of the IUI process.”
Walz first brought up the in vitro fertilization procedure when an Alabama court paused the procedure in the state.
Shortly after, his campaign sent a fundraising email with the subject line “our IVF journey” and linked an article that described “his family’s IVF journey” in its headline.
Earlier this month, he accused vice presidential candidate JD Vance of being against the procedure, again claiming, “If it was up to him, I wouldn’t have a family because of IVF.”
But JD Vance issued a statement of his own today following Mrs. Walz’s statement.
“Today it came out that Tim Walz had lied about having a family via IVF. Who lies about something like that?” he wrote on social media.
“It’s just such a bizarre thing to lie about, right? There’s nothing wrong with having a baby through IVF or not having a baby through IVF. Like, why lie about it? I just don’t understand that,” Vance later said to the press in Milwaukee.
“Anybody who’s had a friend or themselves on fertility treatment, you know the difference,” he added.
Dr. John Storment, a reproductive endocrinologist in Lafayette, Louisiana, told the Associated Press that he does not feel IUI is politically at risk.
“With an IUI, you’re just … hoping that natural fertilization occurs,” he said. “The only people who really don’t do IUI are the devout Catholics. … They want to conceive naturally or not at all.”
