Did Tim Walz Lie About His Family’s IVF Journey?

At a rally earlier this month in Philadelphia, PA, Tim Walz talked about making personal healthcare decisions, including the choice to use fertility treatments.

“When my wife and I decided to have children, we spent years going through infertility treatments, and I remember praying every night for a call for good news, the pit in my stomach when the phone rang, and the agony when we heard that the treatments hadn't worked,” he said. “So, it wasn't by chance that when we welcomed our daughter into the world, we named her Hope.”

The Democratic candidate for vice president has spoken openly about his struggle to have children with his wife, Gwen, since March, when an Alabama court halted in vitro fertilization (IVF) procedures in the state. Walz has also criticized JD Vance, the Republican candidate for vice president, by saying, “If it was up to him, I wouldn’t have a family because of IVF,” according to a PBS News report.

Now, Walz faces backlash because it turns out he and his wife used intrauterine insemination (IUI), not IVF. In an interview with Glamour, Gwen Walz shared how a neighbor—a nurse—would come over to give her the shots she needed as part of the IUI process.

“Today it came out that Tim Walz had lied about having a family via IVF. Who lies about something like that?” Vance wrote on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter.

The Harris-Walz campaign defended the candidate, saying that Walz was using “commonly understood shorthand for fertility treatments.”

So, what exactly is IUI, how does it differ from IVF, and why is the distinction important?

Both IVF and IUI use artificial fertility technology and methods.

In IVF, an individual’s eggs are fertilized with sperm in a laboratory dish under controlled conditions. One or more fertilized eggs (or embryos) are then transferred to a patient’s uterus. Pregnancy occurs when the embryo attaches to the lining of the uterus.

Infographic by Nadezda Sheveleva/iStock via Getty Images

IUI, also known as artificial insemination, is considered a less invasive and less costly alternative to IVF.  During an IUI procedure, sperm is placed directly into the uterus using a small catheter. The goal of this fertility treatment is to improve the chances of fertilization by increasing the number of healthy sperm that reach the fallopian tubes when the woman is most fertile.

Illustration of intrauterine insemenation by Sakurra/iStock via Getty Images

Politically, the distinction matters because IUI doesn’t risk destroying unused embryos that anti-abortion advocates equate to unborn children. So, the Alabama Supreme Court ruling in February that frozen embryos could be considered children under state law, would not have impacted couples or individuals who choose IUI.