House Republican supports abortion exceptions for rape, citing personal experience

Republican Rep. Nancy Mace (S.C.) on Sunday said she supports exceptions to abortion bans in cases of rape and incest and to save the life of the mother, citing her personal experience with rape when she was a young girl.

Asked if she thinks exceptions to abortion bans for victims of rape and incest should be codified by federal law, Mace told moderator Margaret Brennan on CBS’s “Face the Nation,” “Absolutely.”

Mace said she is a rape victim and cited the emotional, mental and physical trauma she experienced as a result.

“I am pro-life, but I do support exceptions for rape. I’m a rape victim myself. And when you realize what’s happened in your life, the trauma, the emotional, the mental, the physical trauma in a woman’s life, that decision — she should make that decision with her doctor and between her and her God,” Mace said.

“And I’ve worked to support those exceptions in my life, not only as a state lawmaker but now as a member of Congress,” she added.

Pressed on if she would support federal legislation in Congress to enshrine abortion exceptions for rape, incest and life of the mother, Mace quickly said, “Yeah,” before emphasizing that rolling back Roe v. Wade would toss the decision to each individual state.

“Well, yeah. And I think that — I think one of the things that’s missing, and I’m glad that you’re bringing this up in all the conversation, the media coverage about Roe v. Wade being overturned, is that what this does — it’s not an all-out federal ban on abortion, but it puts it back into state legislatures and into Congress,” Mace said.

The conversation comes after Politico published a draft Supreme Court ruling showing that a majority of justices voted to overturn Roe v. Wade. While the opinion is not final, it does signal that the court is poised to roll back the nearly 50-year precedent.

Mace made headlines for her stance on abortion in November after getting in a spat with Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.).

The incident began when Greene, in a tweet, said Mace was “not conservative, she’s pro-abort.” The message came after Mace criticized Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) for an anti-Muslim remark the Colorado Republican made about Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.).

“Your out of your league,” Greene wrote.

Mace shot back, correcting her grammar and writing in part, “And, while I’m correcting you, I’m a pro-life fiscal conservative who was attacked by the Left all weekend (as I often am) as I defied China while in Taiwan.”

She also said Greene’s words were an example of “batshit crazy,” replacing the phrase with the bat, poop and clown emoji.