In Arizona, abortion politics are already playing out on the Senate campaign trail

In October, the same month Republican Kari Lake announced her candidacy for the U.S. Senate, the Arizona Democratic Party launched The Lake Tapes.

On social media, they post snippets of statements Lake has made in the past – everything from her false claims of stolen elections to her support of the U.S. Supreme Court's landmark decision overturning Roe v. Wade.

"I am a hundred percent pro-life. I think the Supreme Court did a very smart thing," Lake is heard saying in the one soundbite.

Then there's audio of Lake favoring the more extreme version of two abortion bans on the books in Arizona.

One law bans abortions after 15 weeks.

The other, which dates back to Arizona's first territorial legislature in the 1860s, is a near-total ban.

"So it will prohibit abortion in Arizona, except to save the life of a mother," Lake says on tape. "And I think we're going to be paving the way and setting a course for other states to follow."

Now, rather than leading or paving the way on abortion, Lake and other Republicans are scrambling to react to the latest fallout tied to the overturn of Roe – an Alabama court ruling that frozen embryos are considered children. The National Republican Senatorial Committee issued a memo Friday warning candidates to "clearly and concisely reject" efforts to restrict in vitro fertilization, a treatment that some clinics in Alabama have paused in the wake of the state Supreme Court ruling.

About the same time as the memo was circulating, Lake tweeted a statement opposing restrictions to IVF.

"In the Senate, I will advocate for increased access to fertility treatment for women struggling to get pregnant," Lake wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter. "IVF is extremely important for helping countless