It has been one year since the Supreme Court issued its infamous Dobbs decision, overturning Roe v. Wade and returning the right to legislate abortion back to the states. As Americans look toward 2024, the topic is top-of-mind for both Republicans and Democrats.
During a Friday “Your World” interview with Fox News’s Neil Cavuto, Representative Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) urged Republicans to consider voters and “find a middle ground” with Democrats on abortion if they want to “win back suburban women.”
(Video: Fox News)
“We saw last year in the 2022 midterm elections, we didn’t win as many seats as we should have, this being a defining issue for our party,” Mace said. “Republicans won the Super Bowl with the Dobbs decision. They got Roe overturned.”
“But what happened as a consequence of that,” she said, “is that voters really rejected the idea of Roe being overturned,” she said. “Even pro-life voters.”
It was important to Mace during her campaign that women knew she cared.
“I made the issue of rape and incest as a cornerstone of my campaign in the general election because I wanted women to know I cared about them,” she told Cavuto. “We have to find middle ground in ’24 if we want to win over suburban women and others. We have to show that we care about women at the same time that we care about life. I’m trying to show a path forward and how you do that.”
Mace dismissed DNC claims that she has been a “hypocrite” on the abortion issue.
“Well, I haven’t,” she stated. “My voting record speaks for itself.”
“They dinged me for a fetal heartbeat bill in South Carolina,” she explained. “But, at the time we were the only state in the nation to have any exceptions for rape or incest on that bill because I told my story about being raped as a teenager.”
Whether voters “are Republican, Democrat, or Independent,” Mace said, “we should as a society — all of us — find common ground, and that being, we need to show support for women facing difficult decisions and are in difficult positions.”
Mace argued that “we can all agree” on the desire to reduce the number of abortions that occur in the United States.
“That’s something that most Americans — regardless of your party or political affiliation — we often agree to do that,” she said. “It’s how we get there and do it together as a nation is the greatest question. I’m showing to show a path forward on those issues.”
When questioned about her “personal preference” when it comes to abortion cut-off restrictions, Mace replied, “I’d say 12, 15, or 20 weeks, as long as we have exceptions for rape and incest.”
“Does a six-week move, like what Governor DeSantis just did in Florida, does that go too far to you?” Cavuto pressed.
“It goes too far, and what that Florida bill also did is it mandated reporting of rape to the state,” Mace said. “And those are things that, if you’re a victim of rape or a girl’s a victim of incest, those are very hard pills to swallow and it’s not supported by the vast majority of Americans.”
“The vast majority of Americans support some sort of gestational limit in the second trimester,” she added.
And, evidently, she isn’t wrong.
According to a new Gallup poll, 49% of Americans want to see abortion “legal in only a few (36%) or illegal in all (13%) circumstances,” compared to 47%, who “now say abortion should be legal in all (34%) or most (13%) circumstances.”
While 67% of Americans support the right to an abortion in the first three months of pregnancy, just 37% believe it should be allowed during the second trimester.
Writers and editors can be contacted at [email protected] with feedback, tips, or corrections.
Melissa Fine is the former executive editor of Casino Player, Strictly Slots, and Poker
Digest magazines. She is a UCLA graduate, news junkie, and dedicated Stargate SG-
1 fan. Melissa currently lives with her dog and two cats in a tiny town in the Sierra
Nevada foothills.
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