Seven months before the US presidential election, a Democratic candidate won an unexpected victory in Alabama by focusing her campaign on protecting women’s right to abortion.

Unknown to the general public, Marilyn Lands on Tuesday won a seat in the local parliament of the highly conservative state. Her victory is another blow to the Republicans, who are expected to be represented in the November 5 presidential election by Donald Trump.

Since June 2022, when the US Supreme Court, following Trump’s appointment of three conservative justices, struck down constitutional protections for American women’s right to abortion, conservatives have lost every referendum or election on the issue.

They recorded losses even in states traditionally considered Republican strongholds, such as Ohio and Kansas.

In Alabama, where voter support for Trump is especially high in some counties, the issue of abortion is considered burning: access to voluntary termination of pregnancy was temporarily threatened in February by a court order.

“Wrong direction”

“This is certainly another warning to Republicans that they are going against the grain on the issue,” said political scientist Larry Sabato, a professor at the University of Virginia.

The warning is all the more acute as the issue of abortion will be one of those that will dominate the presidential election campaign, in which it appears that Trump and Joe Biden will once again be rivals.

Voices are already beginning to be heard among Republicans calling for an immediate change of course.

On this issue Trump, who never misses an opportunity to remind that thanks to his own judicial appointments the Supreme Court overturned its historic decision of 1973, remains deliberately vague.

Does he want to adopt a nationwide abortion ban? If so, from which week of pregnancy onwards? Although he has been asked repeatedly, the Republican avoids giving clear answers.

During a radio interview in mid-month, Trump hinted that he might be open to a ban on abortion after the 15th week of pregnancy.

However, he hastened to assure that, in his opinion, the American government is not competent to decide on these matters.

Local referendums

For their part, the Democrats are taking advantage of this hot topic knowing that it can help them win on November 5th.

US Vice President Kamala Harris regularly appears at universities in the nation’s most ambivalent states to discuss the abortion issue.

“Across the country extremists are attacking women’s access to health care and their reproductive rights,” she charged again Tuesday from North Carolina, calling on Americans to back Biden in the November election to protect access to abortion.

In mid-March, Harris became the first US vice president to visit an abortion clinic in Minnesota.

Across the country Democrats are encouraging mini-referendums on the issue of abortion in swing states—Arizona, Nevada, Pennsylvania—on Election Day. They believe that pro-abortion voices can benefit Beinen and mobilize young people who might otherwise stay away from the polls.

“If the result of the election is as inconclusive as we think (…) it is obvious that the issue of abortion can make a difference,” assured Sabato