Tim Walz’ claims about using IVF to have family aren’t exactly true: report

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and his wife, first lady Gwen Walz, have clarified that they conceived their children not through IVF, as the governor had previously said or implied in interviews, but through another fertility treatment. 

Republican vice presidential nominee Sen. JD Vance of Ohio, took to social media platform X, formerly Twitter, to seize on the revelation and ask, “Who lies about something like that?” after asserting that Walz had deceived the public about having children via IVF, adding to his earlier attack that Walz had “lied” about his service in the National Guard. 

But the Harris-Walz campaign hit back at Vance:

“The Trump campaign’s attacks on Mrs. Walz are just another example of how cruel and out of touch Donald Trump and JD Vance are when it comes to women’s healthcare,” Harris-Walz campaign spokesperson Mia Ehrenberg told Fox News Digital. “Infertility is a deeply personal journey, but the Governor and Mrs. Walz came forward to share their story because they know that MAGA attacks on reproductive rights are putting all fertility treatments at risk.”

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Harris campaign spokesperson Mia Ehrenberg argued to CNN that Tim Walz “talks how normal people talk. He was using commonly understood shorthand for fertility treatments.” The couple did not receive in vitro fertilization (IVF) but instead intrauterine insemination (IUI). 

In a statement shared with media, Gwen Walz said that the journey through fertility treatments is riddled with anxiety, agony and “desperation that can eat away at your soul.” 

“I cannot fathom the cruelty of politicians who want to take away the freedom for couples to access the care they need,” she said. “After seeing the extreme attacks on reproductive health care across the country — particularly, the efforts in Alabama that jeopardized access to fertility treatments — Tim and I agreed that it was time to formally speak out about our experience.”

“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 explained. “The only person who knew in detail what we were going through was our next-door neighbor.”

“She was a nurse and helped me with the shots I needed as part of the IUI process. I’d rush home from school, and she would give me the shots to ensure we stayed on track.”

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Tim Walz stated during an interview with MSNBC in July that he had IVF to thank for their children, saying, “Thank God for IVF, my wife and I have two beautiful children.” In other instances, Walz referred to “fertility treatments” and stressed that the issue of IVF rights remained “personal” for him due to the struggles he and his wife went through to have their children. 

Tim Walz has made his support of IVF a central cause after the Alabama Supreme Court ruling that embryos created by IVF treatments should be considered children, which would lay the groundwork for further legislation on treatments. Embryos that have been fertilized but go unused are often discarded, according to the National Institutes of Health.

Then-Rep. Tim Walz and his wife, Gwen, talk about when they met as teachers in Nebraska in the living room of their Mankato home, Sunday, July 8, 2018. (Glen Stubbe/Star Tribune via Getty Images)

The “embryo disposal decision” deals with the question of storage after successful childbearing. Many couples end up donating good-quality embryos to a research program, but discarding fertilized embryos remains a common practice. 

IVF requires the removal of several eggs and fertilization outside the body before transfer into the uterus, while IUI directly injects the sperm into the uterus. IUI also involved “washing” sperm to separate them from seminal fluid to increase the number of sperm transferred and increase chances of successful fertilization, according to Cleveland Clinic Health Essentials.

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Former President Donald Trump shortly after the Alabama ruling stressed, “We want to make it easier for mothers and fathers to have babies, not harder! That includes supporting the availability of fertility treatments like IVF in every state in America.” 

A model of the female reproductive system and an embryo transfer catheter, in the office of Vitaly Kushnir, M.D., at West Coast Fertility Centers, photographed Feb. 29, 2024, in Fountain Valley, CA.  ((Photo by Jay L. Clendenin/for The Washington Post via Getty Images))

“Today, I am calling on the Alabama Legislature to act quickly to find an immediate solution to preserve the availability of IVF in Alabama,” Trump said in a post on Truth Social following the decision. “The Republican Party should always be on the side of the Miracle of Life – and the side of Mothers, Fathers, and their Beautiful Babies.”

The correction issued by the Harris-Walz campaign is another they have had to make regarding previous statements Tim Walz has made, including clarification on his National Guard service. 

The team altered its biography of Tim Walz on the campaign website amid ongoing scrutiny of Walz’s service, changing it from saying he was a “retired Command Sergeant Major” to “served as a command sergeant major.”

Tim Walz retired from the Guard after nearly 25 years of service, but his rank was reduced months later, leaving him as a master sergeant. 

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National Guard officials have said that he retired before fulfilling requirements for the position, including coursework at the U.S. Army Sergeants Major Academy. The subsequent lower rank was due to benefit requirements and a technicality.

The Trump-Vance campaign did not respond to a Fox News Digital request for comment by the time of publication. 

Fox News Digital’s Adam Shaw contributed to this report.