IVF is a slam-dunk issue for Democrats. Abortion may not be

SPARE A THOUGHTIVFIVFIVF for Republican staffers who had to explain the female reproductive system to their bosses this week. Following a decision by Alabama’s Supreme Court, which led to the halting of fertility treatments in several clinics, some showed just how little they understood about baby-making. Tommy Tuberville, an Alabama senator, declared he was “all for” the ruling because “we need to have more kids”. In vitro fertilisation () in fact helps make more kids. Greg Abbott, Texas’s governor, wondered whether created “one, ten, 100, 1,000” embryos (between zero and a dozen per cycle is common).Patients in Alabama have become the latest collateral damage in America’s abortion wars. The ruling on February 16th found that embryos created by and kept in “cryogenic nurseries” count as “extrauterine children”, and thus as people under state law. Politically this seems a gift to Democrats. Everything from the judgment’s scripture-heavy language, to jubilant pro-lifers declaring it a “tremendous victory for life”, and the fumbled responses by Republicans, helped paint Republicans as a radical, woman-hating party.