As Republicans struggle to coalesce around a message on abortion ahead of the 2024 elections, a recent Alabama Supreme Court decision finding that embryos created through in vitro fertilization are considered children has put them in a new bind.
The issue has created complications for politicians who have pushed strict anti-abortion policies, said that they believe life begins at conception, or believe that an embryo or fetus deserves the full rights of a person. The Alabama Supreme Court ruling showed the far-reaching consequences those sorts of policies could have for families, and the political difficulties Republicans still face in coming up with a way to talk about the issue to voters.
The ruling has many doctors and families worried that IVF will become less available, because people could theoretically be sued for destroying an embryo. During the IVF process, embryos are often discarded if they have genetic abnormalities or after patients decide they will not need to use them.
Already, three facilities in the state have paused IVF services. On Wednesday, Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley told NBC News that she supported the Alabama ruling, stating, “Embryos, to me, are babies.” But just a few hours later, Haley seemed to walk back her comment on CNN, saying, “I didn’t say that I agreed with the Alabama ruling.” She added, however, that she still believes “an embryo is an unborn baby.”
And on Thursday, Haley again tried to clean up her answer, saying that the court decision may have been right but that there needed to be a new law: “I think that the court was doing it based on the law, and I think Alabama needs to go back and look at the law.”
At the Conservative Political Action Conference in Maryland on Thursday, Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., replied, “Yeah, I was all for it,” when asked what he thought of the decision finding that embryos are children. But he also seemed unclear on what the decision was.
“You know, you just got to look at everything going on in the country. It’s just an attack on families stacked on kids,” he told NBC News. “We need more kids,” he added. “We need people to have an opportunity to have kids.” South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott evaded a question Thursday about Alabama’s ruling, saying, “Well, I haven’t studied the issue.”
The former presidential hopeful, who has now endorsed former President Donald Trump, instead took a jab at Haley for her muddled answers on the issue.
“I’m gonna let Nikki Haley continue to go back and forth on that,” said Scott, who had vowed to sign “the most conservative pro-life legislation” if elected president.