HUNTSVILLE AND VALLEY HEAD, Alabama — Alyssa Gonzales says it “stings” when she recounts what happened in 2022: when she found out her second pregnancy had a rare genetic disorder that is almost always incompatible with life and could pose serious risks to her health. 

When she couldn’t get an abortion in Alabama, despite an exemption for fatal fetal diagnoses in the state’s near-total ban. 

When, with financial support from an abortion fund, she traveled over 10 hours by car with her now-husband and his parents to receive care in Washington, D.C.

But she has recounted it — first, in a first-person essay in the Huffington Post, then on ABC. 

Now, she’s telling her story in a political ad, because of the candidate she supports: Marilyn Lands, a Democrat running for an Alabama state House seat in a special election next week. 

Two decades ago, Lands too received a devastating diagnosis. But she was able to get abortion care close to home.

“We’ve seen so much progress in women’s rights and to see us go backward 20 years just takes my breath away,” Lands said in an interview. “That’s not the way progress is supposed to work.”

The U.S. Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade in 2022 led Alabama and other states to immediately enact near-total abortion bans. Now, Lands and Gonzales are speaking out to flip a battleground state legislative district, a small step Lands sees as critical for Democrats to break the Republican supermajority in the legislature and have a chance at overturning the state’s abortion ban. The March 26 special election in Huntsville-area House District 10 could be a barometer of how much strict abortion bans — and recent attacks on in-vitro fertilization (IVF) — have impacted politics, even in a deep red state. 

Lands is an Alabama Democrat running directly on repealing the state’s ban — and is centering her own experiences.  She and Gonzales both shared their stories in a three-minute campaign video posted to social media and a television ad now airing in the final stretch of the election. 

Their stories have many parallels — both were mothers who were expecting their second sons when they got those crushing fetal diagnoses. To Lands, their different experiences with getting care provide a stark illustration of how far backward the state has gone.

“Today in Alabama, women have fewer freedoms than they did 20 years ago,” Lands says in the video. “I know because two decades ago, I faced the hardest decision of my life, too.” 

Days before Lands’ campaign posted the video, the Alabama Supreme Court struck another blow to reproductive rights by ruling that frozen embryos are children. The decision temporarily ground fertility treatment to a halt for many in the state and underscored the far-reaching consequences of anti-abortion legislation. 

“I didn’t know that we could go any lower. And yet, we proved we’re capable of that,” Lands said.  “And there’s a real sense from the people I’ve been talking with that we have just gone too far.”

---

The 10th District is highly educated and has a fast-growing population thanks to the prominence of the defense and space industries. It’s home to the U.S. Space and Rocket Center and Redstone Arsenal, the state’s largest employer. The influx of new residents has shifted the district more purple. 

Lands’ campaign hopes to engage new arrivals and less consistent voters and turn them out next week. 

“I think people just assume because the state is so red, that there aren’t competitive pockets. But it really is competitive,” said Matthew Brown, Lands’ campaign manager. “And I think that one of the reasons that we have a little more enthusiasm is because people saw how close it was last time.”

Former President Donald Trump won the district by just one point in 2020, although he won the state by more than 25 points. Then-Democratic Sen. Doug Jones carried it by five points as he lost the state overall, according to the campaign’s numbers. In Lands’ first run for the seat in 2022, she lost by under seven points to Republican David Cole, one of the most competitive state House races that year. Cole resigned from office in August after pleading guilty to felony voter fraud, leaving the seat vacant. 

Compared with her 2022 campaign, Lands said she’s seeing more energy and enthusiasm, especially around abortion. Democrats have overperformed in special elections since the fall of Roe, and this election has received attention from national groups, like the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee, which focuses on electing Democrats to state legislatures.  

“This district in Alabama is a true toss-up,” said Heather Williams, the DLCC’s president. “This race is going to help show where the electorate is after this IVF ruling.”

In the wake of the IVF ruling, Alabama and national Republicans rushed to defend IVF treatment, which is highly popular and used by millions every year. Alabama’s legislature passed a bill shielding IVF clinics from liability in the hopes of enabling providers to restart treatment, though many providers and advocacy groups say the legislation doesn’t go far enough.

Lands’ Republican opponent, Teddy Powell, a Madison City Council member and former Defense Department budget analyst, addressed the issue in a March 7 Facebook post, praising the legislature’s IVF bill and stating he would “strongly support women’s access to fertility-related treatments” if elected. 

As Lands knocked on doors throughout the district on Sunday and Monday, she encountered some enthusiastic supporters but also a few voters who were newer to the area and unaware of the upcoming special election. Lands talked about repealing the state’s abortion ban, highlighting its lack of exceptions, and securing other reproductive rights. Those include stronger protections for IVF than the bill Alabama’s legislature recently passed, as well as a proposed Right to Contraception Act sponsored by House Minority Leader Anthony Daniels, who represents a neighboring Huntsville district. 

Lands, a practicing Episcopal Christian, also emphasized her faith. At some doors, she’s been surprised at how “entrenched” many voters are in their anti-abortion beliefs. At others, women and some men hug her and thank her for sharing her story. 

Sharron Snell, 61, said she planned to vote for the first time after seeing Lands’ ads on television — and was planning on bringing her entire family to the polls, too. After hearing about Snell, Lands stopped by her house to deliver her a campaign T-shirt.  

“I’ve seen your ads, and you looked so sincere,” Snell told Lands. “And I just agree.” 

In West Huntsville neighborhoods Lands canvassed on Monday, multiple voters, including Amanda Sizemore, brought up abortion and reproductive rights as reasons they planned to vote for Lands. 

“I hate what’s going on,” Sizemore said, referring to Republicans’ attacks on reproductive rights. “I really hate it.”

Lloyd Thompson named his top three voting issues as labor rights, reproductive rights, and challenging the “giant, overwhelming conservatism” in the state.  

Another voter, Kimberly Allen, said, “I don’t know why I wouldn’t vote for my own rights.”  

Lands’ deep relationships from her decades working in the community have fueled the campaign’s ground game. Grassroots organizing is crucial in special elections, which run on a compressed time frame and can be decided by the smallest of margins. Alabama allows only limited absentee voting and no in-person early voting, meaning the race will depend almost entirely on Tuesday’s turnout. 

On Monday night, at least two dozen supporters gathered in Lands’ home and campaign headquarters for a weekly “Mondays with Marilyn” event. Volunteers used every inch of counter and tabletop space to prepare door literature for canvassing and to write handwritten postcards to voters. Others phone-banked out of the Lands’ garage. 

Madison County Commissioner Violet Edwards said she’s excited at the prospect of no longer being one of the only Democratic elected officials in the county. Democrats are a superminority in Montgomery, and Alabama is in the bottom 10 states for representation of women in its state legislature, a disparity Lands hopes to help rectify.  

“I just think that this is her time,” Edwards said. “And she’s a fantastic person for the position.”    

Mobilizing Black voters, the core of the Democratic Party base in Alabama, will be critical to a Lands victory. The district includes parts of West Huntsville, a diverse and rapidly growing area, and Triana, a small rural community that is the county’s only majority-Black municipality. Brown said the campaign is conducting faith-based outreach at local Black churches and through its relationships with Black elected officials, like Edwards. 

Nathaniel Douglas, a Lands supporter and local business owner, keeps a stack of Lands campaign flyers on the counter next to the menus at E&N, a popular soul food restaurant he and his wife operate in Triana. 

During Monday’s lunch rush, customers lined up for styrofoam containers filled with specialties like fried catfish and chicken wings. In a brief lull between orders, Douglas said he wanted to see more housing, economic development, and better educational opportunities in places like Triana. And he believes Lands is the person for the job. 

“She’s very down-to-earth,” he said. “And I think she’s very concerned about the community.”

---

For Lands, who didn’t tell her own abortion story in her 2022 campaign, sharing it now is aimed at ensuring others don’t undergo what Gonzales and thousands of others have experienced since the fall of Roe.     

Lands was inspired to tell the story of her abortion when she saw Gonzales appear in an ABC News special in December.

 “It felt like the universe was responding and telling me that this is the time to do this, and it’s a fight worth fighting for,” Lands said.

Gonzales was a 23-year-old new mother to her now almost 2-year-old son, Sora, when her second pregnancy tested positive for the rare disorder Trisomy 18. On the drive back home from getting an abortion in Washington, D.C., Gonzales decided she would speak out publicly. Just a few weeks later, she published a first-person essay in the Huffington Post. 

“​I don’t want to live in fear. Granted, I had a partial hysterectomy because I didn’t ever want to have kids again after that,” said Gonzales in an interview at her home in Valley Head, a small rural community about 75 miles east of the 10th District. “And I don’t want another woman, especially as young as I am, around my age, to have to go through the same thing that I went through.”

Gonzales said that connecting with Lands, who is also a professional mental health counselor, was “a godsend” that helped her “see the light at the end of the tunnel.”  

“The only difference is that she was able to get the care that she needed, and I wasn’t. She still understood what it was like to bear that loss,” she said. 

For Lands, revisiting a painful time in her life has brought “mixed emotions.” But in sharing her story, she felt a sense of peace.

Cindi Branham, Lands’ friend of over 30 years who is also active in local Democratic politics, knew her at the time of her abortion two decades ago. 

“It was so painful watching her, listening to her talk about that,” Branham said. “Even if it’s something that could have killed you, it’s something you wanted.” 

Gonzales is skeptical of some politicians, but Lands quickly made her feel comfortable and earned her trust. Although she doesn’t live in the 10th District and can’t vote for Lands, she’s excited at the prospect of her getting elected to office.

“I know she’s going to do what she says,” Gonzales said. 

While at times challenging, speaking out has also been “rejuvenating,” Gonzales said.  

“In order to make a change, somebody’s got to stand up and speak out. Did I think it was going to be me? No, I did not. I didn’t think I’d be the first, and I didn’t think I’d be the last,” she said. “I honestly thought this all is going to happen, and then nothing’s going to get done. But here I am, sitting currently being proven wrong. And that’s honestly all I can ask for.”