Tim Walz’s wife has confirmed she did not use IVF to have their daughter, as the Democrat’s rival JD Vance accused him of lying about the fertility treatment the couple underwent.
Mr Walz, the Democratic vice presidential nominee for November’s US election, had previously suggested he and his wife Gwen had undergone IVF to conceive their daughter.
But now Mrs Walz has told Glamour magazine they used intrauterine insemination (IUI) and not IVF.
IUI involves inserting sperm into a woman’s uterus while ovulation is taking place.
During IVF, an egg is removed from the woman’s ovaries and fertilised with sperm in a laboratory. The fertilised egg, called an embryo, is then returned to the woman’s womb to grow and develop.
Mrs Walz told Glamour: “Our fertility journey was an incredible personal and difficult 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.”
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Mrs Walz said a neighbour, who was a nurse, helped administer “the shots” she needed as part of the IUI process.
During the campaign trail, Mr Walz has referred to the couple’s difficulties in conceiving a child, suggesting the Republicans want to restrict access to IVF and the reproductive rights of women.
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“All we wanted was something that seemed so simple – to have that child,” Mr Walz has previously said.
He has never directly said he and his wife had their children via IVF, but some of his past statements have implied that was the case.
In February, Mr Walz wrote on Facebook that he and his wife “have two beautiful children because of reproductive health care like IVF”.
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And last month, Mr Walz said on a podcast that, if it were up to Mr Vance, the Democrat “wouldn’t have a family because of IVF and the things that we need to do reproductive”.
“My kids were born through that direct – you know, that way,” he added.
Mr Vance, the Republican vice presidential nominee, accused Mr Walz of lying about the IVF treatment.
“Today it came out that Tim Walz had lied about having a family via IVF. Who lies about something like that?”, Mr Vance wrote on social media.
Mia Ehrenberg, a spokesperson for the Kamala Harris-Tim Walz campaign, said he “was using commonly understood shorthand for fertility treatments” in his previous comments.
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She told Sky’s US partner network NBC: “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.”
Dr John Storment, a reproductive endocrinologist in Louisiana, said confusing IVF with IUI is a common mistake made by patients’ husbands.
