U.S. Sen. Katie Britt will be the first Alabama politician to deliver a response to a State of the Union Address or a presidential address to a joint session of Congress since the practice began in 1966.

For the first time in the 42-year-old freshman senator’s brief political career, the national spotlight will be on her as she provides the Republican Party’s rebuttal of President Joe Biden’s speech that is expected to begin at 8 p.m.

Her speech also comes as a thorny political issue, born out of the state she represents, looms over the entire Republican Party: The fate of in vitro fertilization and other fertility treatments for women.

White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, in a response to an AL.com question on Wednesday, did not address Britt by name or acknowledge what the Alabama senator might touch upon during her rebuttal speech. But Jean-Pierre said that Biden will address women’s reproductive rights during the State of the Union Address and called the Alabama State Supreme Court’s ruling last month that a frozen embryo is a child under Alabama law, a direct result of the U.S. Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v. Wade in 2022.

“This administration will be very clear about where he stands on this outrageous decision,” Jean-Pierre said, calling it an example of Republicans “dictating the most personal decisions” for American families.

Britt, in a statement, did not say whether she will touch on the controversial IVF ruling by the Alabama State Supreme Court, and the political fallout that has occurred over it during the past couple of weeks.

“President Biden is out of touch and off the pace—and the consequences are endangering America’s future,” Britt said in a statement to AL.com. “The Republican Party is the party of hardworking parents and families, and I’m looking forward to sharing our positive vision to secure the American Dream for generations to come.”

Gamechanger

Pressure will be on Britt to deliver in her first national address. As the youngest Republican woman ever elected to the Senate, her rising star power places her in a situation that has sunk aspiring political careers. Two examples – Republican Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, whose water drinking gaffe in 2013 continues to spur memes, and former Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, whose speech delivery in 2009 all but doomed his aspirations for higher office.

“Senator Britt faces a very difficult assignment given all the pomp and pageantry associated with State of the Union addresses,” said Aaron Kall, director of debate at the University of Michigan. “Senator Britt will also be auditioning for serious vice-presidential consideration. She hasn’t quite reached Trump’s public shortlist yet, but a deft breakout performance that upstages President Biden’s major speech could be a political gamechanger.”

Britt will have approximately 10 to 15 minutes for her speech, which will include an introduction and will touch upon major issues like the economy, inflation, immigration, and foreign policy, Kall said.

John Wahl, the chairman of the Alabama Republican Party, said he anticipates inflation and economics as being “front and center” in Britt’s rebuttal. He also said he anticipates her highlighting “Biden’s flawed policies” that include the U.S.-Mexican border, foreign policy, and the “socialist agenda being pushed on our education system.”

He did not say that reproductive rights will be among the subjects he anticipates Britt discussing.

But what he and others will be looking for is how Britt addresses reproductive rights in the aftermath of the Alabama State Supreme Court’s decision that the 1872 Wrongful Death of a Minor Act applies to all unborn children, even frozen embryos that exist outside the uterus.

And what Britt says will come immediately after Biden addresses the subject during the State of the Union.

The Alabama Supreme Court’s decision prompted three of the state’s IVF providers to immediately pause services, sending families out of state for access. Alabama state lawmakers approved late Wednesday what they believe is a legislative fix shielding patients and providers from legal liability, but it doesn’t appear the legislature will declare that embryos are not children under state law.

Britt, in the aftermath of the IVF ruling, said she believes IVF should be protected under the law.

“Make no mistake – defending life and ensuring continued access to IVF services for loving parents are not mutually exclusive,” Britt said in her statement to AL.com last month.

But the senator, who is anti-abortion, did not comment on whether she agrees with the court ruling that frozen embryos are “children.”

The Democratic National Committee is tying Britt to the State Supreme Court’s decision, calling her an “anti-abortion extremist” whose “far-right positions put IVF at risk.”

Democrats, including Biden, have sought to tie the Alabama ruling to the Republicans’ anti-abortion views and the fallout of the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2022 decision to overturn Roe v. Wade.

“Britt should be more concerned about the state of her state, but she has still refused to condemn the devastating court ruling that ripped away the promise of a family for so many Alabamans,” said DNC Rapid Response Director Alex Floyd. “Make no mistake: Britt and her fellow MAGA extremists are backing a cruel, dangerous, and unpopular anti-choice agenda that would outlaw abortion nationwide and risk access to IVF for Americans trying to grow their family.”

Long-game

Kelly Dittmar, associate professor of political science at Rutgers-Camden University, and director of research at the Center for American Women and Politics, said she is not certain Britt will tackle the IVF issue.

“Historically, rebuttals are used to amplify the contrast between the current administration’s agenda and actions and those of the rebutting party,” Dittmar said. “In that vein, I am not sure that Britt or the Republican Party will feel compelled to speak specifically to the state Supreme Court ruling.”

Dittmar said for the GOP, there doesn’t appear to be a unifying position among congressional Republicans. Senate Republicans, behind Mississippi Republican Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith, blocked legislation last week that would have added federal protections to IVF and other fertility treatments.

“I would suspect that if Britt addresses abortion in the rebuttal, it will be to emphasize a pro-life position of the party (and perhaps personally) and perhaps note how this is currently the jurisdiction of the states,” Dittmar said.

Kall said that Britt, given her staunch stance opposing abortions, “may not be the best surrogate for a general election audience.”

But he said that IVF “is a different matter altogether.”

Jess Brown, a retired political science professor at Athens State University and a longtime observer of Alabama state politics, said that in his opinion, Britt is one of the more media savvy politicians from Alabama in quite some time.

He said Britt’s response on IVF, thus far, has been effective in “balancing all the various conflicting elements and factions associated with that issue.”

“Is she ideally positioned to help Republicans with their current problems with female voters? Yes,” said Brown. “She can indeed address the IVF issue better than if you had a male up there doing the response. But I think she will take basic themes that you hear among a wide swath of the Republican Party in Washington and articulate those themes in a different form from the Biden agenda. And she will do so in a professional and calm manner.”

Brown said to look for Britt to “play the long-game” and not deliver a speech that offers “red meat” for Trump’s MAGA base.

“She’s not 72, she’s 42,” Brown said. “She knows the currents of politics changes, certainly over a 10 to 15-year period.”

He added, “When I look at the most politically prudent thing for her to do with this opportunity, it is not to come out there in a somewhat hard-charging (style) as a rabid partisan animal. She will be partisan. But I think stylistically she will be more Reagan-esque than Trumpian. We’ll know a lot more by Thursday night.”