Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., has come out with some shocking (and bad) advice for Republicans: If you want to win elections, quit burying your “heads in the sand” and compromise with Democrats on the slaughter of unborn babies.
Mace’s comments yesterday on “Fox News Sunday” come after a week of anti-life rhetoric in the wake of the recent rulings regarding the abortion pill mifepristone. Here are five of the dumbest things she’s said so far in reaction to restrictions being placed on a drug responsible for more than half of the nation’s abortions.
1. Parroting the ‘Pro-Birth’ Smear
“If we’re going to ban abortion,” Mace said during the Fox interview, “what are we doing about” issues such as promoting access to birth control (which is a toxic group 1 carcinogen), improving the foster care system and adoption services, promoting women’s health care in rural areas, and restricting Americans’ Second Amendment rights. “There are a lot of things that we can do to protect life and not alienate the independent voter,” she added.
Here, Mace is repeating the textbook “pro-birth” talking point the left uses to accuse pro-lifers of only caring about people up until birth, just because conservatives don’t support leftist policies like expanding the welfare state.
In parroting the “pro-birth” attack, both Democrats and Mace ignore the fundamental issue. While adoption and the foster care system are important, they are separate from abortion. Mace’s dislike of her colleagues’ stances on gun control does not invalidate the fact that abortion ends the lives of unborn children. It does not dismiss the reality that abortion relies heavily on evil dehumanization tactics used against, for example, black people during American slavery.
Possible room for improvement on some of the issues Mace mentioned doesn’t change the fact that unborn children at 20 weeks of gestation have a heartbeat, brain waves, pain receptors, and functioning organs. Nor does it negate the need for change in the dozens of states that allow for abortion up to or even after 22 weeks (despite the youngest surviving preemie being born at 21 weeks) and the six states and the District of Columbia that allow a child to be aborted up until birth.
2. Suggesting Dobbs Wasn’t a Win
“We have not learned our lesson from the midterm election. We went [from] mildly pro-choice to being a vast majority of voters being pro-choice after Roe v. Wade. It changed the entire electoral environment in ‘22,” said Mace, insinuating that the Supreme Court’s Dobbs v. Jackson decision hurt Republicans. To be clear, the Dobbs v. Jackson decision is the biggest and most consequential victory conservatives have arguably ever had. Since the Dobbs decision, 5,377 unborn babies have been saved every month.
Moreover, there is no concrete evidence that abortion was the main factor for Republicans’ underwhelming midterms performance. As The Federalist’s John Davidson reported, “Republicans who didn’t shy away from talking about abortion after Dobbs, and who signed into law abortion legislation earlier this year without flinching or apologizing, did really well…”
3. Making Exceptions to Life
“We need to find a middle ground on this issue,” said Mace during her “Fox News Sunday” interview, “and I have a great pro-life voting record, but some of the stances we take and especially when it comes to rape and incest, protecting the life of the mother, it’s so extreme that middle, independent voters, right of center, left of center, they cannot support us.”
Pro-lifers have proven time and time again that intentionally killing an unborn baby is never necessary when the life of the mother is threatened. And victims of rape and incest are only further victimized and traumatized by abortion.
Abortion is responding to violence with violence, and instead of punishing the perpetrator, it punishes an innocent child. If Mace truly believed in the humanity of unborn children, she wouldn’t suggest that the circumstances of their conception invalidate their value and personhood.
4. Trusting the FDA and Suggesting the Agency Ignore a Judge’s Ruling
Mace joined Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley in criticizing Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk’s ruling that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) wrongfully approved the abortion pill. Mace encouraged the federal agency to ignore Kacsmaryk and she dismissed his decision because he’s an “unelected judge.”
It’s unclear if Mace is aware that the FDA is made up of entirely unelected bureaucrats. It’s also puzzling why Mace is so confident in the FDA. Mace has publicly stated she was injured by the Covid vaccine, a drug which — like the abortion pill — had its approval expedited by the FDA.
As Kacsmaryk pointed out in his opinion, the FDA would only have been able to approve the abortion pill by falsely characterizing pregnancy as an “illness.” And for the last two decades, the FDA has been lifting restrictions on the lethal drug, which is responsible for a 500 percent increase in abortion-related emergency room visits.
5. Feeling ‘Attacked’ Because Pro-Lifers Are Holding Her Accountable
Mace has not been very good at taking criticism. After the Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America nonprofit called out Mace for her anti-life rhetoric and gave her a mediocre pro-life rating, she falsely accused the organization of criticizing her for her stance on birth control.
“I find it ironic that Susan B. Anthony would attack me,” said Mace. “I’m a victim of rape, I advocate for women who have been raped, and that organization will no longer talk to my office about pro-life legislation because I’m talking about birth control. I mean, some of these groups have gotten so over the top and extreme.”
Mace’s public statements and mixed voting record, not her stance on birth control, are directly responsible for her B rating. SBA Pro-Life America provided details on how Mace voted against a handful of pro-life bills and the organization also condemned her anti-life abortion pill rhetoric.
“Rep. Mace’s recent comments in favor of the FDA and their mailing of abortion pills directly to girls, without in-person doctor visits, are wildly out of step with the American people,” wrote E.V. Osment, vice president of communications for SBA Pro-Life America. “Americans do not believe the FDA’s claims that mail-order abortion drugs are safe. 63% of Americans oppose mail-order abortion pills, and by a double-digit margin, Americans disagree that the abortion pill has been vetted carefully enough to protect women’s health.”
“It is time for the FDA to be held accountable for fast-tracking a dangerous drug that harms women and girls as well as ending the lives of countless unborn children,” added Osment. “But they will never be held accountable if leaders like Mace encourage them to ignore the law and the science.”
Evita Duffy-Alfonso is a staff writer to The Federalist and the co-founder of the Chicago Thinker. She loves the Midwest, lumberjack sports, writing, and her family. Follow her on Twitter at @evitaduffy_1 or contact her at evita@thefederalist.com.
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