Prior to the 2024 election cycle, South Carolina Republican Rep. Nancy Mace is urging her fellow Republicans to take a more moderate stance on abortion.
In a recent interview with Yahoo News, Mace said, “I know that if we’re going to win hearts and minds, we can’t be assholes to women.” Instead, she suggested that Republicans adopt a more “compassionate and compelling message” that is “pro-woman and pro-life.”
“They can do both,” she affirmed.
Mace has been a vocal supporter of reproductive rights within the Republican Party. His district includes a significant portion of South Carolina’s East Coast, including Charleston and Hilton Head Island. She cited a string of GOP losses in abortion-related cases since the Supreme Court’s ruling in the spring as evidence.
First, there was the wave of successful ballot measures on abortion rights that passed during the 2022 midterm elections, even in traditionally conservative states.
Then last month, Judge Janet Protasiewicz, who campaigned on her support for abortion access, won a hotly contested race for a seat on the Wisconsin Supreme Court by 11%, giving Democrats a majority on the bench in the key swing state and showing, again, that the issue of abortion is top of mind for many voters.
And just last week, South Carolina’s state Senate voted 22-21 to reject a near-total abortion ban. It was the third time since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade that a near-total abortion ban has failed to pass in the state’s GOP-led chamber.
