After the far-right majority on the Alabama Supreme Court ruled that frozen embryos are actual people, Republican officials quickly came to an obvious conclusion: Given the extent to which the party has already struggled with issues of reproductive rights, this was a topic to avoid.
Politico, for example, reached out to the GOP’s congressional campaign committees this week to ask about their reaction to the Alabama ruling. “No one wanted to talk about this,” the outlet reported, “underscoring that Republicans are still struggling with this matter.”
One prominent voice in the party, however, apparently didn’t mind speaking up. NBC News reported:
Former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley said Wednesday that frozen embryos created through in-vitro fertilization are “babies,” siding with a recent Alabama Supreme Court decision that raised concerns among doctors and patients about the future of the procedure.
“Embryos, to me, are babies,” the Republican presidential hopeful told NBC News. She added, “When you talk about an embryo, you are talking about, to me, that’s a life.”
For those familiar with Haley’s record, her apparent support for the Alabama Supreme Court’s ruling isn’t too surprising. As part of her candidacy, she’s already publicly endorsed a six-week abortion ban, and before launching her national bid, Haley celebrated the demise of Roe v. Wade. It’s not as if her endorsement of the far-right decision in Alabama was wildly out of character.
But her position was a reminder that those who perceive Haley as a “moderate” voice in contemporary GOP politics should probably take a closer look.
The Wall Street Journal, for example, recently characterized the former ambassador as a “centrist Republican” — in a news article, not an editorial — and the description has been commonly used by major media outlets for months.
To be sure, labels such as “centrist” and “moderate” have slippery definitions, and different observers…
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