The controversial Alabama Supreme Court ruling earlier this year that frozen embryos deserve the same rights as children and the subsequent backlash that decision sparked put reproductive freedom in the national spotlight.

During the Democratic National Convention in Chicago on Wednesday, Democratic vice presidential candidate Tim Walz, in his first major speech to the country, recounted his family’s experiences with fertility treatments that led to the birth of his two children.

“That’s a big part of what this election is about: freedom,” said Walz, the governor of Minnesota, contrasting both parties’ views on the concept.

“When Republicans use the word ‘freedom,’ they mean that the government should have the freedom to invade the doctor’s office … and that banks should have the freedom to take advantage of their customers,” he said. “But when we Democrats talk about freedom, we mean the freedom to make a better life for yourself and the people you love…”

Of his record as governor of Minnesota, Walz said that under his leadership the state has “protected reproductive freedom because in Minnesota we respect our neighbors and their personal choices.”

“We have a golden rule: Mind your own business,” he said to applause. “And that includes IVF and fertility treatments.”

Walz’s wife Gwen underwent fertility treatment, which resulted in the birth of the couple’s two children.

“When our daughter was born (in 2001), we named her Hope,” Walz said as the camera panned to his daughter, who smiled and made a heart shape with her hands.

Five years later, Gwen Walz gave birth to a son.

“Hope and Gus, you are our whole world and we love you,” said Tim Walz.

This is not the first time that the governor has described his personal experiences with fertility treatments in the wake of the Alabama ruling.

“Gwen and I have two beautiful children thanks to artificial insemination. This issue is deeply personal for our family and many others,” Walz posted on Facebook in February, shortly after the verdict.

“Don’t let these people get away with telling you they support IVF when their hand-picked judges are against it.

“Actions speak louder than words, and your actions are clear. You are bringing an anti-science government into your exam room, your bedroom, and your classroom.”

The Alabama Supreme Court ruled that under state law, embryos are human beings from the moment of fertilization, whether in the womb or created through artificial insemination in the laboratory.

Couples had sued an IVF clinic and a mobile hospital after their embryos were destroyed.

Mobile County District Court Judge Jill Parrish Phillips dismissed the case in 2022 on the grounds that embryos are not children, but her decision was overturned by the state Supreme Court in February.

Walz told the Minneapolis Star Tribune that more clarity in Minnesota’s laws is needed following the Alabama ruling.

“For the people who said there was redundancy in them, OK, but I want to create redundancy in them,” Walz said. “I’m going to reinforce the protective walls as much as I can.”

Walz told the newspaper that he and Gwen had been trying to start a family for seven years by undergoing fertility treatments at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester. Repeated treatments had not worked, Walz said.

Then, he said, Gwen called him one day, crying, the Star Tribune reported in March.

“I said, ‘Not again,'” Walz asked his wife as he picked up the phone. “She said, ‘No, I’m pregnant.’ It’s no coincidence that we named our daughter Hope.”

In July, the Harris campaign wished “happy IVF day to everyone except” Trump’s current running mate, Senator JD Vance. In response, Governor Walz shared her story.

“Even if you’ve never been through the hell of infertility, someone you know has. When Gwen and I were struggling to conceive, fear and frustration obscured the sun. JD Vance’s resistance to the miracle of IVF is a direct attack on my family and so many others,” Walz tweeted.

Meanwhile, Vance attacked Walz on Tuesday, claiming the governor “lied when he said he wanted to start a family through artificial insemination.”

Introducing himself to voters as Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris’s running mate, Walz made his family’s fertility struggle a central theme of his narrative, seeking to reach voters concerned about the erosion of reproductive rights in the U.S. On Tuesday, however, Gwen Walz issued a statement describing her experience in more detail and disclosing that they had relied on a different procedure known as intrauterine insemination, or IUI.

IUI is often attempted before IVF, but is less politically controversial because it does not carry the risk of destroying unused embryos, which anti-abortion campaigners say are equivalent to unborn children.

A spokeswoman for Harris’ campaign told the Associated Press that Walz had not been misleading and attributed the discrepancy to Walz’s folksy speaking style.

“Governor Walz speaks like normal people speak,” said Mia Ehrenberg. “He used common-sense acronyms for fertility treatments.”