to shield providers and patients from criminal or civil liability<\/u><\/a>, and Republican Gov. Kay Ivey signed the bill earlier this month.<\/p>\n\n\n\nAbortion rights advocates say that the legal battle over IVF is just one way that restrictive abortion laws, including those that state life begins at conception or grant personhood to fetuses, can have broad consequences. On a national level, Democrats have gone after Republicans in purple districts who co-sponsored the US House version of the Life at Conception Act, which doesn\u2019t include a carve out for IVF treatment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe see this as a race that will help show where the electorate is after this really horrific IVF ruling, even in GOP controlled states like Alabama, and how IVF is resonating as an issue across all states as we move into November,\u201d said Heather Williams, the president of the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee, which works to elect Democrats to statehouse seats.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The DLCC named Lands as one of its \u201cspotlight\u201d candidates in January and has been providing fundraising and organizational support to her campaign.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Republican State Leadership Committee, which helps elect GOP candidates in state level races, has been in contact with the Powell campaign, said his campaign consultant Dalton Dismukes. The RSLC did not respond to requests for comment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Powell\u2019s campaign has argued voters won\u2019t cast their ballots solely based on abortion, which they view as a separate issue from IVF.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI don\u2019t think that this is a one issue district,\u201d Dismukes said. \u201cI don\u2019t think any district in Alabama is a one issue district.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Powell, who has focused his campaign on education, infrastructure and economic development, told CNN he believes the state legislature took care of the concerns around IVF with the legislation enacted earlier this month.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On abortion, Powell said the state\u2019s laws were an issue and he might be \u201copen to looking\u201d at laws that added exceptions for rape and incest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI understand that\u2019s not something that Republicans are comfortable talking about,\u201d he said of abortion. \u201cAnd quite honestly, it\u2019s not something I\u2019m greatly comfortable talking about, because I\u2019m not a woman, and I am a man, and I understand that that, it is a woman\u2019s issue, or it\u2019s been turned into that.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He added, \u201cThe reality is it\u2019s something that we need to address.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Still, Powell maintained that the special election is ultimately a race about local issues, despite Lands\u2019 efforts to reflect national trends, and that most voters are not primarily motivated or affected by abortion or reproductive issues.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cAt some point, she has to recognize that she\u2019s running in this district and representing these people,\u201d he said. \u201cShe\u2019s running for the state house of Alabama, not Congress, and she needs to focus on those issues.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Lands\u2019 platform also addresses health care and education, and she has acknowledged voters care about multiple issues. But reproductive rights issues are a major motivator, she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThere are other issues that are on people\u2019s minds and that they want to talk about,\u201d she said. \u201cBut this issue, I think, is what\u2019s going to propel people out to vote.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Lands has also tapped her roots in the community to reach across the aisle. Two of her former neighbors, self-described Reagan Republicans Rosemary and Earl Finley, have appeared on a postcard backing her. While they disagree with Lands on some issues, the state\u2019s abortion law isn\u2019t one of them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cAs a Republican voter, I disagree with the Supreme Court and this state outlawing abortion under any circumstances,\u201d Earl said. \u201cWhen you talk about particularly rape, incest and basically the health of the mother \u2013 those are important things to me.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As with any special election, turnout will be low and the result will come down to which candidate\u2019s supporters show up. Both campaigns spent time knocking on doors ahead of the vote Tuesday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
After Powell knocked on his door, Anthony Franks, a voter in the district, said he plans to support him because he represents his conservative values.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Franks said the Democratic strategy of running on abortion is a \u201cflawed\u201d strategy, and said he would only support someone seeking treatment in cases of rape or incest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe entire reproductive rights shouldn\u2019t be politicized like this,\u201d he said. \u201cI think everybody has a right to choose, but we also have to think about the moral issues with it as well.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Teresa Terrell said she plans to vote for Lands because of her focus on women\u2019s issues, and the direct approach she\u2019s taken to talking about reproductive rights.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI have granddaughters,\u201d Terrell said. \u201cI\u2019m concerned about their future and I\u2019d like to see someone who\u2019s caring about not only the present generation but future generations.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Cnn<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A month after an Alabama Supreme Court ruling thrust in vitro fertilization treatment into the national spotlight, Democrats are looking at a special state House election here on Tuesday for signs of how strong abortion rights resonate with voters in a red state with some of the most restrictive laws in the country. Marilyn Lands, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":25118,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1152],"tags":[1903,1236,1613,2798,5307],"class_list":["post-25117","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-humanrights","tag-alabama","tag-democrats","tag-election","tag-reproductive-rights","tag-ruling"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25117","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=25117"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25117\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25119,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25117\/revisions\/25119"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/25118"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=25117"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=25117"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=25117"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}