Trump Dubs Himself ‘Fertilization President’ At Women’s History Month Event

President Donald Trump came up with a new nickname for himself while speaking at a White House event celebrating Women’s History Month.

Touting his administration’s efforts to expand access to in vitro fertilization (IVF) treatments, Trump called himself the “fertilization president.”

What To Know

“We’re going to have tremendous goodies in the bag for women, too,” Trump said Wednesday. “The women, between the fertilization and all of the other things that we’re talking about, it’s going to be great.”

Trump then paused as people in the room broke into laughter.

“Fertilization,” he said as people in the audience laughed. “I’m still very proud of it. I don’t care. I’ll be known as the fertilization president and that’s not bad. I’ve been called much worse and actually, I like it. I like it.”

The president repeatedly referred to himself as the “father of IVF” on the 2024 campaign trail, saying at one town hall for women voters, “Oh, I want to talk about IVF. I’m the father of IVF, so I want to hear this question.”

A woman in the audience went on to say she was concerned that abortion bans resulting from the Supreme Court’s 2022 decision to overturn Roe v. Wade could affect women’s “ability to access IVF and other fertility treatments.” She asked Trump what he would say to people with those concerns.

The president—then the 2024 Republican candidate—responded by mischaracterizing an Alabama supreme court case in which the court ruled that frozen embryos created via IVF are considered children under state law, meaning people could theoretically be sued for destroying them.

Trump went on to say he asked Alabama Senator Katie Britt to “explain IVF … very quickly.”

“And within about two minutes, I understood it,” he said, adding that he told Britt, “We’re totally in favor of IVF.”

Trump later issued a statement about the court case and IVF on Truth Social, writing, “Like the OVERWHELMING MAJORITY of Americans, including the VAST MAJORITY of Republicans, Conservatives, Christians, and Pro-Life Americans, I strongly support the availability of IVF for couples who are trying to have a precious baby. Today, I am calling on the Alabama Legislature to act quickly to find an immediate solution to preserve the availability of IVF in Alabama.”

The president also signed an executive order in February that asked for a list of policy recommendations to protect IVF access and “aggressively reduce out-of-pocket and health plan costs for such treatments.”

What People Are Saying

Former Vice President and Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris criticized Trump for calling himself the “father of IVF,” telling reporters in October: “He should take responsibility for the fact that one in three women in America lives in a Trump’s abortion ban state. What he should take responsibility for is that couples who are praying and hoping and working towards growing a family have been so disappointed and harmed by the fact that IVF treatments have now been put at risk.”

Harris added that she found Trump’s claim to be “quite bizarre.”

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt wrote on X: “PROMISES MADE. PROMISES KEPT: President Trump just signed an Executive Order to Expand Access to IVF!”

What Happens Next

Lucky Sekhon, a fertility doctor in New York, said on social media that while she supports expanding access to IVF, “an executive order alone is not going to fix the deep rooted issues that we have when it comes to fertility care access.”

“All too often, the insurance coverage that does exist flies in the face of what we actually medically are recommending,” she said. “So for this kind of executive order to actually mean something for patients, we would need to see concrete action at both the state and federal levels.”