NEW DELHI: Former US President Donald Trump came under fire after he complimented a female senator’s physical appearance as “young” and “fantastically attractive” in his attempt to garner women votes at a a Fox News town hall.
During the event in Cumming, Georgia, Trump was asked a question by a pro-life mother-of-three who said she was concerned about abortion bans impacting access to IVF treatment.
In his response, Trump said shared an anecdote of a phone call he had with Republican Alabama Senator Katie Britt.
The Republican candidate then admitted he asked Britt to “explain IVF” to him: “And I said, ‘Explain IVF very quickly.’ And within about two minutes I understood it. I said, ‘No, no, we’re totally in favor of IVF.’”
“So, I got a call from Katie Britt, a young, just a fantastically attractive person from Alabama. She’s a senator. And she called me up like, ‘Emergency, emergency,’ because an Alabama judge had ruled that the IVF clinics were illegal and they have to be closed down – 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 was fertilization” Trump said.
“I didn’t know they were even involved in, nobody talks about that, they don’t talk about it. But now that they can’t do it, she said, ‘I was attacked.’ In a certain way, ‘I was attacked,’ he added.
Social media users reacted strongly to a clip of Trump’s remarks, labeling him a “misogynist” and “creepy.” Many criticized his focus on Britt’s appearance, arguing that it was irrelevant and that all women matter, regardless of their physical attributes.
According to a report in The Independent, Trump’s campaign national press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, defended the former president, stating that he is “loved by millions of women across the country” and that those who know him personally would describe him as “supportive, generous, and kind.”
Abortion and IVF have become crucial issues in the current election. While Trump claims to support fertility treatment, Democrats caution that the overturning of Roe v Wade and the rollback of abortion rights could lead Republicans to target IVF access next. In February, Alabama’s state Supreme Court ruled that frozen embryos had the same rights as children, causing some IVF clinics in the state to suspend treatment.