The Trump administration launched a new “fertility benefit option” this week for companies to offer their employees, and on Tuesday morning, the hosts of “The View” were decidedly split about it. While some of the women called it “not bad policy,” others found holes in the plan.
The new rule would create a supplemental insurance option, like vision or dental insurance, that employers could offer, that would cover IVF treatments and more. Having just gone through several rounds of IVF herself, before giving birth to a baby boy earlier this year, host Alyssa Farah Griffin actually supported Trump on this one.
“I actually agree with this, but I’m going to preface it to say the fact that he puts his name on everything is just so cringe,” Farah Griffin noted. (Indeed, during the press conference touting this new benefit, Trump and his team encouraged “Trump Babies”).
Farah Griffin then detailed her own experience with IVF, including how it cost her six figures, and she didn’t have health insurance from employers to cover it, given that she’s a contractor.
“These are tangible impacts that can help people. So my thing is like, Trump gives us plenty to critique him on legitimately,” she said. “This, to me, is not bad policy.”
Host Sunny Hostin agreed, though noted that it’s definitely fair to question Trump’s intent. But for her part, moderator Whoopi Goldberg was not ready to give Trump the win just yet.
“Listen, if you really want to help, if you really, really want to help, stop spending $29 billion on a war, $400 million on a ballroom, and $13 million painting the reflecting pool, and put that money towards childcare and accessibility,” she said.
“Because it’s not enough to say, ‘Have babies.’ You have to — those babies are with you every day. You got to take care of them. You got to feed them. You got to keep them occupied. You got to put them in childcare. You got to put them in school. You got to take care of them. You got to do summers with them. You got to pay for stuff.”
Host Sara Haines agreed, and added that “the messengers are problematic” in this particular effort, considering everything else the Trump administration has done.
“Because right now, I don’t have a ton of faith in Donald Trump and female policies, and RFK Jr., don’t get me started,” she said. “But I do think that the bigger problem here is, to help with birth does not therefore increase birth rate.”
“The reason people aren’t having babies is they can’t pay their bills, they don’t have health care, they can’t pay for gas or food.”
As the conversation eventually came to an end, Whoopi reiterated that helping out only with the cost of fertility treatments to give birth is not enough.
“I will not give him this until he takes care of the kids from birth to 18, or to 20,” she said.
You can watch the full conversation from “The View” in the video above.