Shomari Figures, the Democratic nominee for the 2nd Congressional District, speaks in front of an inflatable IUD on Oct. 24 2024 in Montgomery, Alabama. Figures pledged to protect reproductive rights and access to contraception in the address. (Jemma Stephenson/Alabama Reflector)
Democratic congressional nominee Shomari Figures Thursday said he would work to codify federal abortion rights, protect contraceptive access and reduce maternal mortality during an appearance in Montgomery.
Speaking at Hilltop Public House in front of a giant inflatable intrauterine device called Freeda Womb, Figures also discussed women’s health care and the Alabama Supreme Court’s ruling in February that frozen embryos are children, which put access to in vitro fertilization (IVF) in jeopardy.
“It’s incredibly important that we stand up for the right to have access to contraception,” said Figures.
Freeda Womb, the inflatable IUD, is sponsored by Americans for Contraception, which has put it on a “IUD Express” tour in support of reproductive rights.
Figures is running in Alabama’s 2nd Congressional District against Republican nominee Caroleene Dobson. A federal court last year approved a new congressional map for the state that redrew the 2nd Congressional District to give Black voters an opportunity to elect their preferred leaders.
“Contraception is not under threat in our state, but that won’t stop Shomari Figures from trying to scare women,” Caroleene Dobson said in a Thursday afternoon statement. “What should scare women is him choosing the left’s radical gender ideology over protecting women’s rights. I support IVF and contraception, and I know what a woman is.”
Dobson plans on holding an IVF event Friday in Montgomery.
The “Sanctity of Life” amendment requires the state to “ensure the protection of the rights of the unborn child.” The year after the amendment was passed, Gov. Kay Ivey signed an effective ban on abortion in Alabama. The measure did not go into effect until 2022, when the U.S. Supreme Court struck down federal abortion rights protections in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Medical Center.
Courtney Andrews, reproductive rights policy strategist at the ACLU, who was in attendance Thursday, said that the amendment, if interpreted by the courts to apply to embryos regardless of location, could apply to anything that disrupts the implantation process, such as hormonal birth control or IUDs.
“The Sanctity of Life amendment would be solid grounds to ban those things if the interpretation is that it is applied to life at the moment of conception,” she said.
Figures also cited Alabama’s high maternal mortality rates as an important reason to secure contraception access and the ability of women to make their own health care decisions.
“Here in the state of Alabama, we have some of the worst maternal health care outcomes in the country, and that is all a product of policies that just don’t respect a woman’s right to make her own healthcare decision,” he said,
After the event, Figures said that it was important to keep the Affordable Care Act in place to provide coverage for birth control.
“We just have to have those common sense policies that just put us in a place where we’re not allowing states to restrict women’s ability to be able to make those healthcare and family planning choices on their own,” he said.
Figures said that he supported the codification of Roe vs. Wade, which protected abortion rights until the U.S. Supreme Court’s Dobbs ruling in 2022.
“Going back to an era where women had that reproductive choice, that freedom is where we need to be,” he said.
Pamela Froese, a tax professional who attended the event and plans to vote for Figures, said that she has less rights than her mom does and, if she has a child, then her child will have less rights than she did three years ago.
She said that reproductive rights are decisions that allow a person to make the life they want for themselves. She also said that it frustrated her that some members of the anti-abortion rights movement also oppose family leave and expanding the childcare tax credit.
“I also don’t understand, with the whole overturning Roe v. Wade, well, now it’s to the states, and every state gets to decide, well, why is it that I have fewer rights in the state of Alabama than I did if I lived in Illinois or Virginia, like that doesn’t make any sense,” she said. “That’s not equality.”
Figures’ campaign said Thursday that former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder and U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett, D-Texas, will campaign on behalf of Figures next week.
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