JD Vance accuses Tim Walz of telling ‘bizarre lies’ over fertility treatment

JD Vance has been reported to have accused Tim Walz to having lied on issues to do with IVF treatment since his wife disclosed that they had instead used another fertility procedure to sire his daughter. 
 
Ever since he was nominated for the vice president by Kamala Harris, 60-year-old Mr Walz has all but suggested that he and his wife had to undergo IVF treatment to conceive while railing against the Republicans, who allowed states to ban access to fertility treatment. 
 
Earlier this month, Mr Walz attacked Mr Vance, his Republican counterpart, saying: “I have bitter memories of IVF because to him, if it was within his power, I would not even have a family. ” 
 
Speaking at his first rally with Ms Harris after being named as her running mate, Mr Walz said IVF “gets personal for me”, before going on to say that he and his wife spent “years going through infertility treatments” before having their daughter, Hope. 
 
It is a shocker that Gwen Walz, his wife, has now revealed the couple did not have IVF treatment but intrauterine insemination (IUI) – a less invasive process in which the sperm is injected directly into the uterus. 
 
“As with millions of others who have faced these struggles, at the time we dealt with it mostly in private, and did not even feel it was worth discussing even with our incredible and loving family,” Ms Walz said in an interview with Glamour, a women’s online magazine. 
 
She also narrated of how a nurse assisted her ‘in the shots that I required regarding the IUI process’. 
 
To this, Mr Vance lashed out at the Minnesota governor for making up accusations that he had received IVF treatment. 
 
Addressing reporters during a campaign stop in Milwaukee, Mr Vance added: “/Well… it is just such an odd thing to lie about, would not it? There is no issue with having a baby through IVF or not having a baby via IVF. Why lie regarding it? I just do not get that. ” 
 
The attack came just when Mr Walz is likely to give a formal nod to the nomination as his party’s vice-presidential candidate at the Democratic National Convention. 
 
Mr Walz’s team was quick to refute any claims that he had misrepresented his experience. 
 
‘Commonly understood shorthand’ 
 
“He speaks and acts and communicates like any typical Joe,” said Mia Ehrenberg, a spokesman of the campaign. “He was using definitions that everyone must have known were referring to fertility treatments . ” 
 
IUI and IVF are both types of artificial fertility therapy. Apparently, unlike IVF, IUI, which is also used to treat infertility and is usually the first choice before turning to IVF, does not attract the opprobium of the pro-life movement since nothing that might be considered the disposal of the embryos is involved. 
 
In the case of IVF, the eggs are retrieved from the body and fertilised outside the body while for IUI the best sperm is chosen and placed in the female’s uterus to fertilise the eggs. 
 
For example, in some states of the United States, insurance cover for fertility treatment depends on the couple’s insurance provider; insurance cover may mean that the couple must undergo IUI before IVF. 
 
One of the pro-abortion rights campaigners who testified at the convention proceedings on Monday was Amanda Zurawski, who failed to access an emergency abortion in Texas, while defending Mr Walz. 
 
She said it was ‘absolutely disgusting’ that anyone think that the Walz family’s fertility journey has been any less painful. 
 
‘It’s so lonely’: the world of infertility Infertility is a private experience, with often tremendous public implications, the academic and writer Ms Zurawski has pointed out, having herself used IVF. “When you find people who are in the same boat as you are, they are the people you want to hang out with. ” 
 
The IVF controversy is the second time Mr Walz has been forced to keep up the impression of experience for political reasons. Last week, Republicans accused him of overstating his military service. 
 
For 24 years, Mr Walz was in the army National Guard in infantry and artillery before retiring in 2005 to vie for Congress, only for his team to be sent to Iraq. 
 
Earlier this month, Mr Vance, who was a military journalist in 2005 to Iraq but not engaged in fight, criticized Mr Walz army credential by calling him a “dropout” who “let his unit go to Iraq without him”. 
 
He also took issue with a clip from one of the videos released by the Harris campaign where Mr Waltz talks about gun control reform, mentioning firearms that he used in combat. 
 
Mr Vance said:  “Well, I wonder, Tim Walz, when were you ever in war? What was this weapon that you carried into war given that you abandoned your unit right before they went to Iraq?” 
 
He added: “He has not spent a day in a combat zone. What bothers me about Tim Walz is the stolen valour garbage. Do not pretend to be something that you’re not. ” 
 
Mr Vance’s harsh rhetoric of his opponent was described as an attempt to launch a “swift boat” campaign against his rival – a reference to the republican’s efforts to dispute the war record of John Kerry, the opponent of George W. Bush in the 2004 presidential election.