“The Attractive” Katie Britt taught me how IVF works

Photo: Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images

The likelihood that Donald Trump would say something strange and sexist during his Wednesday-aired town hall on women's issues with Fox News host Harris Faulkner was pretty high from the start. Yes, Fox News hosts often ask Trump simple, cajoling questions and even try to bring him back on topic when he rambles. And many of the all-female viewers were reportedly recruited from Republican groups in Georgia. But Trump has long been known for his sexism, and lately we've seen plenty of evidence that the former president is generally deteriorating, from his chaotic Bloomberg interview to the town hall where he listened to music and danced for 39 minutes .

In fact, when asked about abortion bans blocking access to IVF treatments, Trump initially referred to the attractiveness of the US Senator from Alabama.

“So I got a call from Katie Britt, a young – just incredibly attractive person from Alabama. She’s a senator,” he said.

Trump recalled Britt urging him to sound the alarm earlier this year when the Alabama Supreme Court briefly halted IVF treatments in the state by ruling that frozen embryos created for in vitro fertilization , were “children” under state law, which was approved by Trump-appointed judges on April 17, 2017, in a Supreme Court overturn roe v. Wade.

Trump suggested that he “didn't even know” that embryos were involved in fertility treatments until he had Britt explain IVF “very quickly” over the phone:

(Britt) called me and said, “Emergency! Emergency!” Because a judge in Alabama had ruled that the IVF clinics were illegal and had to be closed. A judge ruled. And she said, “Friends of mine came up to me and they were – oh, they were so angry! “

I didn't even know they were going, you know, they were – it's fertilization. I didn't know they were even involved, nobody talks about it – they don't talk about it. But now that they can't, she said, “I was attacked. In a way, I was attacked.”

And I said, “Explain IVF very quickly.” And within about two minutes I understood. I said, “No, no. We are all for IVF.”

It's particularly strange that Trump didn't know how IVF works, since he had declared himself the “Father of IVF” just moments earlier:

Why is Trump the “father” of a process he apparently knows little about? It's unclear, as Kamala Harris' campaign quickly noted:

Trump may have been referring to his efforts to position himself as the savior of IVF as the crisis unfolded in Alabama. During the town hall, Trump pointed to his statement urging Alabama lawmakers to find a solution, which they did shortly afterward by passing a law granting immunity to IVF providers.

“I made a statement within the hour,” Trump said. “A really strong statement from some experts. Really powerful. And we were all for the Republican Party – the whole party. A day later, the Alabama law was repealed – that is, it was approved, the judge was overthrown, essentially – it was approved.”

Trump concluded by claiming that Republicans are actually better than Democrats at artificial insemination.

“We really are the party for IVF,” he said. “We want fertilization, and that's all. And the Democrats have tried to attack us for this, and we're even more pro-IVF than they are. That’s why we’re totally in favor of it.”

Hopefully another Senate hottie will call Trump and explain why this is complete nonsense.