Republicans struggle to respond to Alabama embryo ruling

CNN —

A court decision prompting some Alabama fertility clinics to curtail IVF treatments shows how top Republicans are still struggling to navigate a post-Roe v. Wade world.

Candidates, including presidential contender Nikki Haley, are scrambling for coherent responses to last week’s state Supreme Court decision that declared embryos are children and those who destroy them can be held liable for wrongful death. Republicans are being pulled between social conservatives in their party and more moderate voters who could be decisive in a general election.

Nikki Haley speaks at a rally in Aiken, South Carolina, on February 5, 2024.

Related article Nikki Haley says she believes embryos are children but disagrees with Alabama Supreme Court ruling

The irony is that US Supreme Court ending the nationwide federal right to an abortion in 2022 represented one of the most spectacular successes in the conservative movement’s history. But for many Americans, the loss of such constitutional protections they may have taken for granted has ever since offered a huge political opening to Democrats and abortion right campaigners.

Led by President Joe Biden, Democrats quickly branded the Alabama ruling as an example of far-right reverberations from the overturning of Roe, which abortion rights advocates say has emboldened ultra-conservative judges to issue ever more radical rulings.

The Alabama decision, which was accompanied by a concurring opinion by Alabama Chief Justice Tom Parker warning against invoking the “wrath of a holy God,” could invite similar action in other conservative states and widen the patchwork nature of reproductive rights that increasingly depends on where in the country someone lives.

This latest battle –