Gwen Walz, the wife of Democratic vice presidential candidate Governor Tim Walz, revealed in an article published in Glamour this week that fertility treatments She underwent intrauterine insemination treatments, rather than in vitro fertilization.
“Our fertility journey was an incredibly personal and difficult experience,” she said of the artificial insemination treatments. “We hope other families will find comfort in our story.” She added that a neighbor, who was a nurse, would come help me with the “injections I needed as part of the artificial insemination process.”
She acknowledged that the reason she and her husband decided to speak out about their struggle with infertility was because of the threat to in vitro fertilization treatments, in particular. Alabama Supreme Court Decision in February that frozen embryos created through IVF are children within the meaning of the state’s wrongful death of a minor law.
“I can’t understand the cruelty of politicians who want to deprive couples of their freedom to access the care they need,” Gwen Walz told Glamour.
The Walz family’s use of fertility treatments was not lost on Vice President Kamala Harris, who highlighted the couple’s fertility journey in Philadelphia during her first rally with Walz after choosing him as her running mate. Harris is a vocal advocate for reproductive technology, as well as women’s access to abortion.
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Walz, the Minnesota governor, has raised the issue of infertility during his election campaigns since becoming vice president, crediting fertility treatments like in vitro fertilization (IVF) for helping his wife conceive their two children. As governor, Walz has expressed concern about Americans’ access to IVF.
“Gwen and I have two beautiful children thanks to reproductive health care like IVF,” Walz wrote on Facebook after the Alabama decision. “This issue is deeply personal to our family and so many others. Don’t let these people get away with saying they support IVF when their hand-picked judges oppose it.”
He told the Star Tribune in March that the couple underwent fertility treatments for seven years before Gwen became pregnant with their daughter, Hope.
In early August, shortly after he was selected as Harris’ running mate, other media outlets referred to the family’s “IVF journey,” though they did not quote Walz on what type of fertility treatments his wife had undergone. IUI is an artificial insemination process that typically requires injections of stimulants, like IVF. But IUI treatments insert sperm into the uterus to increase the chances of fertilization, while IVF treatments involve creating embryos in a lab that are then transferred to the uterus. IVF currently faces a number of legal challenges, while IUI does not.
“It’s getting personal for me and my family,” Tim Walz told the Rally in Philadelphia alongside Harris’ hours after being announced “When my wife and I decided to have children, we spent years going through fertility treatments. And I remember praying every night that we would get a call with good news. I felt a pit in my stomach when the phone rang, and agony when we learned that the treatments hadn’t worked. So it wasn’t by chance that we welcomed my daughter into this world. We named her Hope.”
“Governor and Mrs. Walz have two children, Hope and Gus,” Harris’ campaign said in a statement. “Governor and Mrs. Walz struggled with fertility issues for years and had their daughter, Hope, through reproductive health care like IVF, further reinforcing their commitment to ensuring all Americans have access to this care.”
IVF has also been a topic of debate on Capitol Hill. After Alabama’s decision, the Senate voted on the legislation In June, the Senate passed legislation to make IVF access a national right. All but two Republican senators voted to block the entire bill, and many maintained that they supported IVF access. Some Republicans called the push for the bill a political stunt by Democrats.
“Even if you’ve never experienced the hell of infertility, someone you know has,” Walz wrote on social media. “When Gwen and I were struggling to get pregnant, anxiety and frustration made us forget about the sunshine. JD Vance’s opposition to the miracle of IVF is a direct attack on my family and so many others.”
Vance, the Republican vice presidential nominee, was among the majority of Republican senators who voted against the IVF bill. After Gwen Walz revealed that she had undergone artificial insemination treatments, not IVF, Vance posted on X: “Today it came out that Tim Walz lied about having a family through IVF. Who lies about that?”
