If you were an alien who touched down from outer space knowing nothing about American politics and you were forced to watch Donald Trump’s women-only town hall on Fox News on Wednesday morning, you could easily be bamboozled into thinking that Trump holds the sort of women-friendly family policy positions long championed by Democrats.

As has become typical, Trump’s statements were messy and confusing, but if you knew little about the issues at hand and listened to the raucous cheers of the audience, you might think he was supportive of a woman’s right to choose and access to I.V.F.

One woman questioned Trump about abortion. She stated plainly, “Women are entitled to do what they want to and need to do with their bodies.” And then she asked, “Why is the government involved in women’s basic rights?”

Trump responded by saying he personally believes in exceptions to abortion bans for rape, incest and the health of the mother, and repeated the lie that “everybody” wanted abortion to be a states-rights issue. “Nobody wanted it to be in the federal government,” he said. “What they wanted it was back in the states and that’s what we have it, and the states are going more liberal.” (In much of the country, they are not.)

To her credit, the host of the event, Harris Faulkner, quietly pushed back, saying, “Some of them are not.” But Trump — and his audience — didn’t appear to be listening.

He sounded similarly supportive when asked whether abortion bans would restrict access to I.V.F. “I got a call from Katie Britt, a young, fantastically attractive person from Alabama,” he said of the United States senator. He said that he didn’t know what I.V.F. was until she explained it to him, but once he knew what it was, he was totally in favor of it — he even called himself the “father of I.V.F.” “We want fertilization, and we’re out there on I.V.F. even more than them,” he said, referring to Democrats. (In recent months, congressional Republicans have blocked bills that would protect I.V.F. access.)