Alabama IVF ruling leaves Republicans stuck between their base and the broader public

Amid a lack of popular support for fetal ‘personhood’, GOP seeks to support IVF without drawing attention to its record of undermining it

Republicans have been forced to stake an uncomfortable position between their anti-abortion base and the wider American public, as fallout from an Alabama supreme court ruling that embryos are “extrauterine children” continues into a second week.

Meanwhile, Democrats have seized on the issue as the forewarned conclusion of decades of Republican policies to restrict reproductive rights, and pointed to contraceptives as the next frontier for restrictions.