On Friday morning, the National Republican Senatorial Committee issued talking points as Republicans struggled to respond to the recent Alabama Supreme Court ruling that frozen embryos are children, a decision that has led some clinics to shut down in vitro fertilization treatments.
The committee is urging candidates and senators up for reelection in 2024 to “clearly and concisely reject efforts by the government to restrict IVF,” and calls the Alabama ruling “fodder for Democrats hoping to manipulate the abortion issue for electoral gain,” according to a copy of the memo obtained by Axios.
The talking points come after an awkward bout of floundering on Thursday from Sen. Tommy Tuberville, Alabama’s contribution to the lowering of the Senate’s IQ, who had three different answers to reporters’ questions about the Alabama ruling.
First, he told reporters that he was “all for” the ruling. “We need to have more kids,” he said. “We need to have an opportunity to do that. I thought this was the right thing to do.”
But when reporters pointed out the decision actually meant fewer kids, he brought up abortion. And when reporters reminded him that the decision is not about abortion but fertility treatments, he tried to take refuge in the old I-haven’t-read-the-bill deflection.
“I’d have to look at the entire bill, how it’s written. I have not seen it,” he said. Except it’s not a bill. It’s a state Supreme Court ruling.
It won’t be easy for Republicans to downplay their role in this. After all, GOP senators almost unanimously voted to put Amy Coney Barrett on the Supreme Court. And during her 2020 confirmation hearing, Barrett refused to answer the question of whether criminalizing in vitro fertilization would be constitutional. Barrett described the issue as an “abstract” question.
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Of course, the Alabama Supreme Court just demonstrated how this is very much not an abstract issue.
There’s also that little problem for Senate Republicans about how they refused to allow Democratic Sen. Tammy Duckworth’s bill to protect IVF in the aftermath of the Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, which overturned the constitutional right to abortion. Duckworth’s Right To Build Families Act would have protected individual patients’ right to seek and receive fertility treatments, and created a federal right to those treatments.
At the time, Duckworth warned that Americans' ability to grow their families "is now in danger for millions of would-be parents across the country"—and Alabama’s Supreme Court proved her right.
That’s a problem for Republicans. As Daily Kos’ Kerry Eleveld pointed out, “the very medical treatment Republicans are trying to dismantle is the type of treatment more Americans—particularly white upper-income Americans who are used to doing what they want, when they want, and how they want—are relying on to build their families.”
RELATED STORIES:
The Republican disaster on IVF is just beginning
Trump's gone silent on IVF. The Biden campaign is making him pay for it
Every warning of post-Roe America is coming true, and there’s worse ahead
The economy seems to be going great, but lots of voters still say they aren't feeling it. So how should Democrats deal with this conundrum? On this week's episode of "The Downballot," communications consultant Anat Shenker-Osorio tells us that the first step is to reframe the debate, focusing not on "the economy"—an institution many feel is unjust—but rather on voters' economic well-being. Shenker-Osorio advises Democrats to run on a populist message that emphasizes specifics, like delivering tangible kitchen-table economic benefits and protecting personal liberties, including the right to an abortion.
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The committee is urging candidates and senators up for reelection in 2024 to “clearly and concisely reject efforts by the government to restrict IVF,” and calls the Alabama ruling “fodder for Democrats hoping to manipulate the abortion issue for electoral gain,” according to a copy of the memo obtained by Axios.
The talking points come after an awkward bout of floundering on Thursday from Sen. Tommy Tuberville, Alabama’s contribution to the lowering of the Senate’s IQ, who had three different answers to reporters’ questions about the Alabama ruling.
First, he told reporters that he was “all for” the ruling. “We need to have more kids,” he said. “We need to have an opportunity to do that. I thought this was the right thing to do.”
But when reporters pointed out the decision actually meant fewer kids, he brought up abortion. And when reporters reminded him that the decision is not about abortion but fertility treatments, he tried to take refuge in the old I-haven’t-read-the-bill deflection.
“I’d have to look at the entire bill, how it’s written. I have not seen it,” he said. Except it’s not a bill. It’s a state Supreme Court ruling.
It won’t be easy for Republicans to downplay their role in this. After all, GOP senators almost unanimously voted to put Amy Coney Barrett on the Supreme Court. And during her 2020 confirmation hearing, Barrett refused to answer the question of whether criminalizing in vitro fertilization would be constitutional. Barrett described the issue as an “abstract” question.
YouTube Video
Of course, the Alabama Supreme Court just demonstrated how this is very much not an abstract issue.
There’s also that little problem for Senate Republicans about how they refused to allow Democratic Sen. Tammy Duckworth’s bill to protect IVF in the aftermath of the Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, which overturned the constitutional right to abortion. Duckworth’s Right To Build Families Act would have protected individual patients’ right to seek and receive fertility treatments, and created a federal right to those treatments.
At the time, Duckworth warned that Americans' ability to grow their families "is now in danger for millions of would-be parents across the country"—and Alabama’s Supreme Court proved her right.
That’s a problem for Republicans. As Daily Kos’ Kerry Eleveld pointed out, “the very medical treatment Republicans are trying to dismantle is the type of treatment more Americans—particularly white upper-income Americans who are used to doing what they want, when they want, and how they want—are relying on to build their families.”
RELATED STORIES:
The Republican disaster on IVF is just beginning
Trump's gone silent on IVF. The Biden campaign is making him pay for it
Every warning of post-Roe America is coming true, and there’s worse ahead
The economy seems to be going great, but lots of voters still say they aren't feeling it. So how should Democrats deal with this conundrum? On this week's episode of "The Downballot," communications consultant Anat Shenker-Osorio tells us that the first step is to reframe the debate, focusing not on "the economy"—an institution many feel is unjust—but rather on voters' economic well-being. Shenker-Osorio advises Democrats to run on a populist message that emphasizes specifics, like delivering tangible kitchen-table economic benefits and protecting personal liberties, including the right to an abortion.
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