For Tim Walz, in vitro fertilization (IVF) is a deeply personal issue—or at least he made it seem that way. In several recent interviews, the Minnesota governor and Democratic vice presidential candidate implied or outright suggested that his own two children were conceived using IVF.
One problem: It’s not true. Walz’s children were conceived using intrauterine insemination (IUI), not IVF. These are two very different things, and the policy conversations about them are fundamentally distinct; many religious conservatives want to prohibit IVF—which can result in the destruction of unused fertilized embryos outside the womb—but not IUI.
Yet Walz tried to link his own personal experience with potential efforts by Republicans to ban IVF. This is misleading, since he and his wife used IUI, not IVF.
It was an oft-repeated error. On Facebook, Walz wrote that his family had taken advantage of reproductive health care options like IVF, which is true enough. But then he told the Pod Save America podcast that his two kids were born “that way,” in reference to IVF. Worse still, on MSNBC, he flatly stated: “Thank God for IVF, my wife and I have two beautiful children.”
Walz is no stranger to making exaggerations. He also misrepresented his military service, indirectly implying that he saw combat while stationed overseas in the National Guard. In 2018, Walz spoke favorably of gun control initiatives, saying: “We can make sure that those weapons of war, that I carried in war, is the only place where those weapons are at.”
One might have assumed, based on those remarks, that Walz carried weapons in an actual war zone, but no: He never served in combat. During the Afghanistan War, Walz was deployed to Italy and served in a support role. When referred to by others as an “Afghanistan veteran” and a veteran who served in “Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan,” he offered no correction, according to The New York Times. He also claimed to have retired from active service as a command sergeant major; his actual rank upon retirement was one level lower.
Read more at Reason.com
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