President Joe Biden’s reelection campaign and national Democrats trumpeted a victory in an Alabama special election for a state House race that centered on the fight over abortion and in vitro fertilization, the latest win in a series of successes for Democrats in the post-Roe era.
Democrat Marilyn Lands beat her Republican opponent Teddy Powell by around 25% in a relatively low turnout contest, according to unofficial results from the Alabama Secretary of State’s office. But the win in the deep-red Deep South was one Lands and other Democrats credited to backlash to the state’s near-total abortion ban and an Alabama court ruling earlier this year that concluded frozen embryos were legally children. (Alabama lawmakers quickly passed protections for IVF providers earlier this month.)
“I think this is a giant step forward for Alabama. I think it's a victory tonight for women, for families, for Alabama in general,” Lands told local TV news outlet WHNT News 19 at her victory party on Tuesday night. “I want to get down there and repeal the bad ban on no exceptions abortion. I want to protect IVF and contraception.”
All of Lands’ campaign literature mentioned reproductive rights, according to the Washington Post, and she spoke on the trail of having an abortion decades ago when she had a nonviable pregnancy. A TV ad she ran highlighted the story of a woman with a similarly nonviable pregnancy who had to drive 10 hours to get an abortion because Alabama’s ban allows abortions only “to prevent a serious health risk to the unborn child's mother.” There are no exceptions for rape, incest or the viability of the pregnancy.
“It’s shameful that today woman have fewer freedoms than I did two decades ago,” Lands says in the ad. “We need to repeal Alabama’s abortion ban and protect women’s freedom.”
Powell, the Republican and a local city councilman, was less willing to embrace the issue. He did not include his abortion stance on his website. And in an interview with the Washington Post, he avoided questions about his stance on abortion and IVF, saying “I think there’s room for improvement in the law, but the law is what the law is. And it’s been decided. It is in place.”
“My personal opinion, it just really doesn’t matter,” he added. Press representatives for Powell did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Wednesday.
The district Lands won in, Alabama House district 10, is within Madison County, which voted for Trump over Biden 52.8% to 44.8% in 2020. Lands lost to the seat’s previous officeholder, Republican David Cole, by nearly identical margins in 2022. Cole resigned in August after pleading guilty to voter fraud and being sentenced to 60 days in county jail.
Biden’s campaign and other Democrats were quick to emphasize the victory as evidence of the toxicity of antiabortion politics to the general electorate that may harm former President Donald Trump and other Republicans in November.
“Tonight, the voters in Alabama’s 10th House District elected a pro-choice champion in Marilyn Lands, sending Trump and extreme MAGA Republicans a clear message: they know exactly who's to blame for restricting their ability to decide how and when to build their families,” Biden’s campaign manager Julie Chavez Rodriguez said in a statement. “ Trump overturned Roe v. Wade, paving the way for attacks on women's freedoms like we saw in Alabama – now he’s running to ban abortion and gut access to IVF nationwide. Tonight’s results should serve as a major warning sign for Trump: voters will not stand for his attacks on reproductive health care. This November will be no different.”
Trump has taken credit for the Supreme Court decision that overturned Roe v. Wade in 2021 -- he appointed three of the six justices in the majority -- and has floated a national abortion ban around 15 weeks.
“The significance of Marilyn’s victory can’t be overstated,” former Alabama Sen. Doug Jones, a Democrat, wrote on social media on Wednesday. “This district had been in Republican hands for 17 years.”