Democratic vice presidential nominee Tim Walz, already under fire for embellishing his military service, misrepresented the fertility treatments his wife received to have children.
Walz repeatedly said on the campaign trail and as Minnesota governor that he and his wife, Gwen, conceived their two children through in-vitro fertilization.
"Thank God for IVF. My wife and I have two beautiful children," he told MSNBC’s Jen Psaki in July. Walz fundraised off "his family's IVF Journey" in an email to donors in March. Earlier this month, he accused Republicans of wanting to ban the procedure. "If it was up to [J.D. Vance], I wouldn’t have a family because of IVF," Walz said in a video posted by the Kamala Harris campaign on Aug. 9. "My kids were born through that way."
But that’s not how the Walzes had their two kids, Hope and Gus. They conceived through intrauterine insemination (IUI), a far less invasive procedure than IVF that does not involve fertilizing an embryo. Gwen Walz detailed the fertility treatment in a statement to CNN, and the Harris campaign defended Walz’s inconsistent statements on the issue.
"Governor Walz talks how normal people talk. He was using commonly understood shorthand for fertility treatments," said Harris campaign spokeswoman Mia Ehrenberg.
It’s the latest example of Walz embellishing his personal history during a heated political campaign. As a first-time House candidate in 2006, Walz’s campaign said he was a "veteran of Operation Enduring Freedom," the war in Afghanistan, the Washington Free Beacon reported. Walz, a National Guard veteran, served overseas in Italy and Norway but never saw combat and didn't deploy to the Middle East.
Walz, 60, began discussing his family’s fertility struggles earlier this year after the Alabama Supreme Court issued a ruling that liberals claimed would ban IVF treatments. Though most Republicans support IVF, Democrats have said conservatives want to ban the practice. Walz portrayed the ruling as an attack on his family and millions of others who have used IVF.
"What those judges did was a direct attack on our family. It was a direct attack on my children. Gwen and I will not forget it, nor will we forgive it," Walz said in his State of the State speech on March 26.
Walz’s misrepresentations about both his military service and fertility treatments have confused even his closest allies. In 2007, Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D., Calif.) praised Walz’s service "on the battlefield" at a press conference on veterans issues. Walz thanked Pelosi without correcting her statement, the Free Beacon reported. Earlier this month, the Harris campaign posted a video of Walz falsely claiming that he carried guns "in war," prompting the campaign to walk back Walz’s remarks.
Walz’s tale about IVF was also the subject of numerous glowing media profiles. "For Tim Walz, the IVF Political Battles are Personal," reads a Time headline, and the website Motherly posted a story headlined "Tim Walz's Personal IVF Story Made Me Feel Seen." The New York Times, in an article entitled "19 Facts About Tim Walz," reported that "He and his wife had their two children through in vitro fertilization."
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