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WASHINGTON (AP) — In March, after an Alabama court halted in vitro fertilization procedures in the state, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz decided to speak about his struggle to have children with his wife, Gwen. The same month, his team sent a fundraising email titled “our IVF journey” sharing an article that referenced “his family's IVF journey” in the headline.
And earlier this month, Walz criticized Ohio Sen. JD Vance, the Republican candidate for vice president, by saying, “If it was up to him, I wouldn’t have a family because of IVF.”
In introducing himself to voters as Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris ’ running mate, Walz has made his family’s struggle with fertility a central part of his narrative, a tangible way to connect with voters alarmed at the erosion of reproductive rights in the U.S. But Gwen Walz on Tuesday issued a statement that detailed the experience more comprehensively and disclosed that they relied on a different process known as intrauterine insemination, or IUI.
IUI is often attempted before IVF but doesn’t face the same level of political controversy because it doesn’t risk destroying unused embryos that anti-abortion advocates say equate to unborn children.
“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 the statement. “She was a nurse and helped me with the shots I needed as part of the IUI process."
Mia Ehrenberg, a campaign spokesperson, defended Walz’s comments and denied that he had been misleading.
“Governor Walz talks how normal people talk,” she said. “He was using commonly understood shorthand for fertility treatments.”
Vance branded Walz a liar over his previous remarks on IVF.
“Today it came out that Tim Walz had lied about having a family via IVF. Who lies about something like that?” Vance wrote on social media.
The discrepancy on what is considered a deeply personal topic for many families comes as Republicans have been scrambling to poke holes in his biography. He has also faced scrutiny over how he's characterized his time in the military, though his supporters reject any criticism as politically motivated.
The Alabama Supreme Court ruled in February that frozen embryos could be considered children under state law. IVF procedures were temporarily halted, shocking people who were trying to become parents and injecting an emotionally sensitive issue into the national debate over reproductive rights.
Walz brought up the issue during his State of the State address in March. He did not specifically say that his wife underwent IVF treatment, but he did say the Alabama ruling was a “direct attack on my children.”
“All we wanted was something that seemed so simple — to have that child,” Walz said at the time. “What those judges did was a direct attack on our family.”
IUI involves placing a partner's or donor's sperm in the uterus at the time of ovulation. With IVF, a woman's eggs are removed from her body, combined with the sperm and then transferred back into her uterus.
A couple's approach to fertility treatments can differ based on their medical issues and insurance coverage, which sometimes requires attempting IUI before moving toward IVF.
Dr. Jason Griffith, a reproductive endocrinologist at Shady Grove Fertility-Houston, said some patients are confused about the terms when they start treatment. They “come in and say, ‘Oh, I want to do IVF,'" he said.
“And you start talking about that, and it’s like, ‘Wait, that’s not what I thought it was — where you just put the sperm into the uterus,’ And you have to say, ‘Well, no, that’s intrauterine insemination,'" Griffith added.
Dr. John Storment, a reproductive endocrinologist in Lafayette, Louisiana, said it's the patients' husbands who often get confused.
Storment added that he doesn't think IUI is under threat at all. "With an IUI, you’re just putting sperm into the uterus and 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.”
Mini Timmaraju, head of Reproductive Freedom for All, formerly known as NARAL, contended that Republicans' efforts to limit abortion, contraception and IVF would have ripple effects that would harm access to procedures like IUI as well. NARAL has endorsed Harris for president.
In talking about their struggle, she said, the Walzes had “put a human face on the struggle with infertility.”
Rachel Aplikowski, a spokesperson for the Minnesota Senate Republican Caucus who said she did both IUI and IVF to conceive, said on social media that Walz “needs to apologize personally for exaggerating their struggles.”
Amanda Zurawski, who spoke from the convention stage on Monday about her dangerous experience with Texas abortion restrictions, said “it’s absolutely disgusting” to suggest that the Walzes’ experience was not as difficult as others who used a different procedure to conceive.
“The world of infertility is so isolating,” said Zurawski, who has used IVF. “And when you find people who has gone through anything similar, that’s a community that you want to be a part of.”
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Ungar reported from Louisville, Ky. Associated Press writer Amanda Seitz in Washington contributed to this report.
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This story has been corrected to fix reference to Griffith as “he,” not “she.”