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Tim Walz’s wife Gwen discloses she used different fertility treatment than IVF
Gwen Walz, the wife of Democratic vice presidential nominee Gov. Tim Walz, disclosed in a piece published in Glamour this week that the fertility treatments she underwent were intrauterine insemination treatments, rather than in vitro fertilization.
“Our fertility journey was an incredibly personal and difficult experience,” she said, in discussing the IUI treatments. “We hope other families find solace in our story.” She said a neighbor who happened to be a nurse would come help with the “shots I needed as part of the IUI process.”
She acknowledged that the reason she and her husband decided to talk about their struggle with infertility because of the threat to in vitro fertilization treatments, in particular, the Alabama Supreme Court ruling in February that frozen embryos made through IVF are children under the state’s Wrongful Death of a Minor Act.
“I cannot fathom the cruelty of politicians who want to take away the freedom for couples to access the care they need,” Gwen Walz told Glamour.
The Walz family’s use of fertility treatments isn’t lost on Vice President Kamala Harris, who highlighted the couple’s fertility journey in Philadelphia, at her first rally with Walz after she selected him to be her running mate. Harris has been a vocal advocate of reproductive technology, as well as women’s access to abortion.
And Walz, the governor of Minnesota, has spoken about infertility at campaign events since he became the VP nominee, crediting fertility treatments like IVF with helping his wife to conceive their two children. And as governor, Walz has voiced concern about Americans’ access to IVF.
“Gwen and I have two beautiful children because of reproductive health care like IVF,” Walz wrote on Facebook after the Alabama ruling. “This issue is deeply personal to our family and so many others. Don’t let these guys get away with this by telling you they support IVF when their handpicked judges oppose it.”
He told the Star Tribune in March that the couple underwent fertility treatments for seven years before Gwen became pregnant with their daughter, Hope.
In early August, soon after his selection as Harris’ running mate, other outlets referred to the family’s “IVF journey,” although they did not quote Walz on the type of fertility treatments his wife had undergone. IUI treatment is an artificial insemination process that typically requires stimulant shots, as IVF does. But unlike IVF, an IUI treatment inserts sperm into the uterus to increase the chances of fertilization. IVF treatments involve the creation of embryos in a laboratory facility, and they are then transferred into the uterus. IVF currently faces a number of legal challenges, while IUI does not.
“This gets personal for me and my family,” Tim Walz said earlier this month at the Philadelphia rally alongside Harris hours after being announced as her running mate. “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. So, this wasn’t by chance that when we welcomed my daughter into the world. We named her Hope.”
“Governor Walz and Mrs. Walz have two children, Hope and Gus,” the Harris campaign said in a statement. “Governor Walz and Mrs. Walz struggled with years of fertility challenges and had their daughter, Hope, through reproductive health care like IVF — further cementing his commitment to ensuring all Americans have access to this care.”
IVF has been a topic of debate on Capitol Hill, too. After the Alabama ruling, the Senate voted on legislation in June to make IVF access a right nationally. All but two Senate Republicans voted to block the set of bills, and many maintained that they supported IVF access. Some Republicans called the push for the legislation a political stunt on the part of Democrats.
“Even if you’ve never gone through the hell of infertility, someone you know has,” Walz wrote on social media. “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.”
Vance, the Republican vice presidential nominee, was one of the majority of Senate Republicans who voted against the IVF package. After Gwen Walz’s disclosure that she underwent IUI treatments, not IVF, Vance posted on X, “Today it came out that Tim Walz had lied about having a family via IVF. Who lies about something like that?”
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Associate of Frenchman on trial for mass rape of wife Gisele Pelicot admits copycat abuse of his own wife
A man who says he learned to drug and rape his own wife from Frenchman Dominque Pelicot, who’s admitted to drugging and raping his own former partner for almost a decade, and recruiting scores of strangers to assault her as well, said Wednesday that he deserved to be harshly punished.
“I’m in jail and I deserve it,” the 63-year-old told the court in Avignon where the mass rape trial of Pelicot has been unfolding to the horror of the French and international public.
“What I did is appalling. I’m a criminal and a rapist,” said Jean-Pierre Marechal, a tall man with a buzzcut who claimed he was supplied with tranquillisers by Pelicot.
Pelicot, 71, has admitted slipping his then wife Gisele sedatives to render her unconscious so that he and dozens of strangers could rape her.
Gisele Pelicot also testified in the Avignon court Wednesday, saying she felt humiliated by defense lawyers suggesting she could have been complicit in the ordeal.
“Since I have set foot in this courtroom I have felt humiliated,” she said during the trial of her former husband, who stands accused along with 50 other men of raping his wife between 2011 and 2020.
“I’m being called an alcoholic, and someone who gets intoxicated to the point of becoming Mr. Pelicot’s accomplice,” she bristled.
Marechal is the only one involved in the case who is not accused of abusing Gisele Pelicot. Instead, Marechal is accused of raping or attempting to rape his 54-year-old wife Cilia 12 times, with Pelicot accused of taking part in 10 of those assaults after the two men met online.
“What I did is horrible and I want a tough punishment,” said Marechal.
“I regret my actions,” he told the courtroom. “If I had not met Mr. Pelicot, I would have never committed this act. He was reassuring, like a cousin.”
According to prosecutors, after the two men met on a website called Coco, Pelicot started sharing images of his abuse of his wife by the men he’d enlisted, explaining to Marechal how he drugged her. Marechal said he initially refused Pelicot’s invitation to rape his wife, but later changed his mind.
Prosecutors have said Pelicot appears in at least three recordings of 12 assaults on Marechal’s wife Cilia.
Pelicot said he stopped contacting Marechal after Cilia woke up while he was in the room.
Marechal says he had a “happy life” with his wife
Marechal told the court he had been abused by his father as a child.
“My childhood was all shame, alcohol, sex and a lot of silence,” he said. “We experienced terrible things from my father, sexual abuse.”
“My mother tried to protect us but she drank,” he added.
Marechal said he had a “happy life” with his wife after meeting her as a young man. She too told the court last week that it was a happy marriage.
“I love my wife,” he said.
He lived about 30 miles from the Pelicot home in the southern town of Mazan, where the main defendant is accused of abusing his own wife in her bed.
Gisele Pelicot has been lauded globally for waiving her right to anonymity under French law and insisting the trial be open to the public, hoping to raise awareness about the use of drugs to commit sexual abuse.
contributed to this report.
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