Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz shared that his wife was nearly one of J.D. Vance’s “childless cat ladies” until in vitro fertilization helped the couple welcome their first child. But Vance doesn’t support IVF either, and Walz publicly called him out for it last month.
Walz, who will join the November ticket as Kamala Harris’ VP, has been open about the “anxiety and frustration” behind he and his wife Gwen’s infertility issues.
In a March interview with the Star Tribune, Walz said that he and Gwen struggled to conceive for seven years. After several IVF attempts finally worked for them, Walz has gone on to use his power as governor to support reproductive freedom and more access to reproductive health care, such as IVF. Now Walz and his wife have two children, Hope and Gus, born in 2001 and 2006 respectively.
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“It’s not by chance that we named our daughter Hope,” he said to the Tribune.
On World IVF Day, July 25, Walz called out Vance for voting against the Right to IVF Act, calling it a “direct attack” on his family.
“Even if you’ve never gone through the hell of infertility, someone you know has,” wrote Walz on X. “When Gwen and I were having trouble getting pregnant, the anxiety and frustration blotted out the sun... JD Vance opposing the miracle of IVF is a direct attack on my family and so many others.”
In reaction to the Alabama Supreme Court ruling which declared frozen embryos are children, Walz said the ruling was “deeply personal” for his family because of how it will affect other couples struggling to start a families.
“Gwen and I have two beautiful children because of reproductive health care like IVF,” he wrote. “This issue is deeply personal to our family and so many others.”
Walz’s “personal” approach to politics has encouraged some political pundits to look into how his family could influence his support of policies as governor, and now as Harris’ potential second in command.
But in a 2019 interview with PBS Twin Cities, shortly before Walz took office as Minnesota’s governor, Gwen told the outlet Walz’s decisions are his own.
“I make no mistake about it, Tim is going to make the decisions,” said Gwen, who met Walz when they were both educators. “And he did when he was in Congress. And I think we worked toward usually the same end, but we really trust one another.”
