Republican Rep., Nancy Mace of South Carolina, slammed Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida Friday over the “heartbeat” abortion legislation he signed on April 14.
DeSantis signed legislation restricting abortion after the sixth week of pregnancy when a fetal heartbeat can be detected.
The Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in June 2022 after upholding a Mississippi law in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization that banned most abortions after the 15th week of pregnancy.
“It goes too far, and what that Florida bill also did is it mandated reporting of rape to the state, 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,” Mace told Fox News host Neil Cavuto. “The vast majority of Americans support some sort of gestational limit in the second trimester.”
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Abortion was a top issue for Democrats in the 2022 midterm elections following the Dobbs decision. During those elections, Republicans underperformed expectations of a “red wave” nationally, although DeSantis defeated former Democratic Rep. Charlie Crist, who served as governor from 2007-2011 as a Republican, by over 19%.
“My voting record speaks for itself. In fact, they dinged me for a fetal heartbeat bill in South Carolina, 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,” Mace said. “One of the things that I want to emphasize with voters, whether they’re Republican, Democrat or Independent, is that we should, as a society, all of us find some common ground, and that being, we need to show that we support women that are facing difficult decisions and are in difficult positions.”
“The second thing that we can do is I think that we can all agree that we want to reduce the number of abortions in this country,” Mace continued. “That’s something I think most Americans regardless of your party or political affiliation, we often agree to do that. It’s just how we get there and do it together as a nation is the greatest question, and I’m trying to show a path forward on those issues.”
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