Minnesota first lady Gwen Walz clarified in a statement to CNN that she did not use in vitro fertilization to conceive, sharing new details about her and Gov. Tim Walz’s fertility struggles as the governor has highlighted their experience with infertility on the campaign trail.
In her statement, Gwen Walz said they used a different fertility treatment, intrauterine insemination.
In campaign speeches since joining the Democratic ticket as Vice President Kamala Harris’ running mate, Walz has often characterized the issue of access to IVF treatment as “personal” to him and his family while sharing the story of his and his wife’s journey to conceiving their two children.
“This one’s personal for me about IVF and reproductive care,” Walz told supporters at a rally in Glendale, Arizona, earlier this month. “When we wanted to have children, we went through years of fertility treatment.”
And in an MSNBC interview in July, he continued attacking Republican vice presidential nominee JD Vance for his opposition to a bill that would have guaranteed access to IVF nationwide, while appearing to link the treatment to the birth of his two children.
“Thank God for IVF, my wife and I have two beautiful children,” he said.
In a statement to CNN, Gwen Walz said that they tried intrauterine insemination, a process she described as “an incredibly 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. The only person who knew in detail what we were going through was our next door neighbor,” she said in the statement.
“She was a nurse and helped me with the shots I needed as part of the IUI process. I’d rush home from school and she would give me the shots to ensure we stayed on track,” she continued.
Intrauterine insemination, like IVF, is a common fertility procedure used by couples trying to conceive. But anti-abortion groups have pushed state officials to restrict IVF — when an egg is removed from a person’s body and combined with sperm inside a lab before being implanted.
During intrauterine insemination, known as IUI, sperm is placed directly in the uterus. The process is sometimes combined with ovulation induction, where medication stimulates the release of eggs. People experiencing infertility often start with IUI and move on to IVF if needed.
After Roe v. Wade was overturned, some anti-abortion groups began pushing for restrictions in IVF care. In February, Alabama’s Supreme Court ruled embryos created by IVF treatments should be considered children, creating a pathway for the procedure to potentially be restricted under the state’s abortion law.
Gwen Walz pointed to the Alabama ruling as one of the reasons she and Walz began sharing their fertility struggles.
“After seeing the extreme attacks on reproductive health care across the country – particularly, the efforts in Alabama that jeopardized access to fertility treatments – Tim and I agreed that it was time to formally speak out about our experience,” she said in the statement to CNN.
Harris campaign spokesperson Mia Ehrenberg explained the Minnesota governor’s prior use of the term IVF to describe his family’s fertility issues by saying, “Governor Walz talks how normal people talk. He was using commonly understood shorthand for fertility treatments.”
In response to the statement from Gwen Walz, Barbara Collura, president and CEO of Resolve: The National Infertility Association, said the group regrets elevating stories suggesting the Walz family used IVF to conceive.
“RESOLVE regrets if our organization contributed to any confusion about how he became a parent. We support all paths to parenthood and have welcomed Gov. Walz’s support of our community and our advocacy issues, since our federal Advocacy Day in 2017 during his tenure in Congress,” Collura said.
Mini Timmaraju, president of Reproductive Freedom for All, thanked the Walz family for sharing their story.
“I’m so grateful to Gwen and Tim Walz for bravely sharing their story and their advocacy in ensuring all of us have access to the reproductive health care we need to build our families,” Timmaraju said in a post on social media.
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