How abortion rights flipped a red seat in Alabama

The MoJo Daily newsletter, Monday through Friday. [View in browser]( [Support our nonprofit journalism]( [Mother Jones Daily Newsletter](     March 27, 2024 Last night, a special election in northern Alabama provided even more evidence of what we already know to be true: [Abortion rights win elections](. Democrat Marilyn Lands won an Alabama state House contest, flipping a Republican-held seat by [campaigning on]( abortion rights in the deep-red state that [bans abortion]( with no exceptions for rape or incest. She beat her Republican challenger by nearly 25 percentage points, just a month after she released a campaign ad in which she and another Alabama woman, Alyssa Gonzales, each shared their personal stories of getting emergency abortions following nonviable pregnancies. For Lands, it happened 20 years ago; for Gonzales, it happened after the Dobbs decision was handed down in 2022. “We will not stand by and watch our most basic human rights be stripped from us,” Lands says in the ad. (I didn't see it until today, but it's pretty powerful—I recommend [checking it out](.) Tuesday’s election results once again demonstrated the far-reaching effects that abortion bans can have in galvanizing [voters]( in decisive elections around the country. The trend can be directly traced to the Supreme Court’s Dobbs ruling, which was repeatedly cited throughout the Alabama Supreme Court [decision]( that effectively banned IVF procedures. (The Alabama Legislature subsequently [passed a bill](, which the governor signed, to protect IVF access, but it didn’t address the legal status of frozen embryos.) Lands’ win seems to send a clear message—one that advocates have been [trying to send President Biden]( and other Democrats for some time: it’s [reproductive justice]( that wins elections in the post-Roe era. And as long as Republicans’ anti-abortion policies continue to harm pregnant people—including those who aren’t seeking abortions—they’ll likely continue losing. [Read my story]( on the election to get the full scoop. —Julianne McShane Advertisement [Mother Jones Grist Event]( [Top Story] [Top Story]( [In Alabama, Abortion and IVF Helped Flip a Red Seat in a Special Election]( Democrats say Marilyn Lands' win offers a road map for using abortion rights to win elections. BY JULIANNE MCSHANE FROM MOTHER JONES   Mother Jones and Grist team up for an Earth Week event! 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