I was raped when I was 16. That moment changed me forever.
I dropped out of school not long after and became a waitress at the Waffle House on College Park Road in Ladson.
I’ve never gotten over it. The memory of it brings me a pain I wish no woman or girl to ever bear. This pain has lasted my lifetime.
I entered politics as a pro-life woman, and I remain one. As a mother, and a rape survivor, I have a firsthand perspective that is often missed by those writing the laws we live by.
So when I see my home state attempting to ban abortion for women and girls who’ve been raped, I shake my head.
South Carolina is one of the few states in the country that has a heartbeat law with exceptions because I was in the Legislature when it passed and wrote those exceptions in an amendment to the bill and fought to make them law. I stand ready to fight those in my own party who seek to remove those exceptions today.
Let me say here: It serves no one if we refuse to listen to one another. We should approach the post-Roe world in a truthful, level-headed manner and look for common ground where we can find it.
The first fact we need to get right is that the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe did not outlaw abortion across the country, or in any part of it. The Dobbs decision simply took the issue out of the federal courts and put it in the hands of state and federal legislators.
The Roe decision, as written and interpreted, was an extreme position — allowing virtually no regulation of abortion until very late in a pregnancy. The case before the Supreme Court leading to the fall of Roe was not extreme at all. It outlawed abortion after 15 weeks, which is the law in most countries. Roe was more extreme than the laws in many European countries, where abortion is outlawed after a certain number of weeks, if that particular country allows it at all.
The court’s decision allows states and Congress, if we can ever get our act together, to decide what broadly supported measures or restrictions should be in place.
Most Americans do not want abortion allowed for any and all reasons up until birth. Some say that isn’t actually a thing, but the reality is that almost 10,000 late-term abortions (after 24 weeks) occur every single year.
Three-quarters of Americans support some restrictions. This is where we should seek some common ground.
Congress should look to set gestational limits. We must also protect exceptions when the life of the mother is at risk, for women who’ve been raped and girls who are victims of incest.
There are rural parts of South Carolina and other states that don’t have a single OB/GYN doctor. If a state is going to ban abortion, the least we can do is promote contraception. More states should follow South Carolina’s lead and make birth control over the counter, provided by a pharmacist without a doctor’s visit.
I strongly disagree with any legislature moving to stop women from crossing state lines if another state has less restrictive laws. Women cannot be told by our own government where we can or cannot travel.
We must make sure health care — in vitro fertilization, D&C for miscarriages and emergency contraception — are all outside the scope of any abortion ban, and are instead protected.
Finally, we must ensure that babies brought into the world are cared for, by either their birth parents, families or adopted families. Earlier this summer I introduced a bill to provide more resources for prenatal care, health care, postpartum care, legal services and adoption for women in need.
If we truly want a culture that respects women and respects life, then we should ensure babies are conceived by those who want and are ready to have them.
If we spent the time and were more effective with our money to improve adoption, foster care and education in our state and our nation, we would have much better outcomes for the children who are born.
I agree with my party on many things — and life is one of them. But I also insist that we do not listen to the most extreme voices among us, on either side of the aisle. There is no consensus for banning every single abortion, just like there is no consensus for allowing every single abortion, for any reason, up until birth.
On these issues, I hope compassion and common ground eventually will prevail.
U.S. Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., represents the 1st Congressional District. This article first appeared on the Post and Courier.
LINK to full article.
