Alabama court ruled frozen embryos are people. The GOP could pay for it in November.
An Alabama Supreme Court ruling granting legal personhood to frozen embryos risks a legal and political backlash for conservatives heading into the November election.
The decision not only threatens GOP efforts to court suburban women and other constituencies uneasy about abortion bans, but also complicates the party’s standing with millions of people who may oppose abortion but support — and in many cases use — in-vitro fertilization and other forms of fertility care. The ruling also demonstrates how the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade has made previously theoretical policy and legal battles over the most intimate aspects of American life far more immediate and high-stakes.
“It certainly intersects, badly, with general election politics for Republicans,” said Stan Barnes, a political consultant and former Republican state senator in Arizona. “When a state, any state, takes an aggressive action on this particular topic, people are once again made aware of it and many think: ‘Maybe I can’t support a Republican in the general election.’”
He added that even if other states don’t follow Alabama’s lead, the court ruling gives GOP candidates running this year “another hot potato” to deal with — forcing them to answer questions on abortion they would rather avoid heading into the fall election.
Many Republican candidates, including former President Donald Trump, have tried to convince voters that they favor a middle ground that leaves some abortion access in place but imposes enough restrictions to appease anti-abortion groups. But the Alabama case places the focus on the goals of hardline conservatives, who seek not only to eliminate abortion access but also curtail some forms of contraception and fertility care.
That the case has the potential to upend the GOP conversation about abortion and fetal personhood in the presidential race became apparent on Wednesday, when presidential candidate Nikki Haley,
who has chided her party for being too judgmental of women who have abortions, embraced the Alabama decision.
“Embryos, to me, are babies,” Haley, who has spoken openly of her decision to use artificial insemination to conceive, told NBC News in an interview.
Kellyanne Conway, the former senior counselor and campaign manager for President Donald Trump, went to Capitol Hill in December to share the result of
a poll her firm KA Consulting conducted that found overwhelming support for IVF — including among people who identify as pro-life and Evangelical. The survey found that 86 percent of all respondents supported access to IVF, with 78 percent support among self-identified “pro-life advocates” and 83 percent among Evangelical Christians.
