Rep. Nancy Mace said Friday on Newsmax she's pushing back against a proposed bill in South Carolina that could potentially impose the death penalty on women who have had abortions, as the bill would "give rapists more rights than women who have been raped."
"Under our law, murder has the death penalty," the South Carolina Republican told Newsmax's "National Report." "There are no exceptions in that bill for rape or even for girls who are victims of incest, and I was a victim of rape when I was 16. I would like to ask these lawmakers if they think that I should be executed because I was raped."
Earlier this week, Mace, quoting a story from USA Today, posted a tweet against the bill.
According to the article, Republican lawmakers in South Carolina are considering the South Carolina Prenatal Equal Protection Act of 2023, which would change the state's criminal code to redefine "person" to include a fertilized egg from the point of conception.
The change would "ensure that an unborn child who is a victim of homicide is afforded equal protection under the homicide laws of the state," which under South Carolina law includes the death penalty.
"It is deeply disturbing to me as a woman and as a victim of rape that some in my home state want to give rapists more rights than women who've been raped. And I don't know why I have to say this, but it isn't pro-life to execute a woman who seeks an abortion after being raped," Mace said in her tweet.
Mace pointed out that she has an "almost perfect voting record" on the matter of abortion, but at the same time, a bill passed while she was a state lawmaker had exceptions for rape and incest, as she worked for that.
"I told my story about being raped as a teenager at the age of 16," she told Newsmax. "I dropped out of high school. I wanted to end my life, and it was a very difficult time for me and I wanted to share that story. And there are many women like me, not just in South Carolina but around the country.
"We want to make sure that women who've been raped, girls who are victims of incest, that they're protected in these laws that are changing around the country."
In other matters under discussion, Mace addressed the upcoming meeting between Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin, as well as Russia's move to shoot down a $30 million U.S. drone over the Black Sea.
"I want to make no mistake here: Xi Jinping and the Chinese Communist Party, they are liars," Mace said. "There are open source media reports that have come out in the last 24 hours that they're going to send body armor, ammo, and weapons to Russian soldiers, and I see this as an escalation in Russia's invasion of Ukraine."
She added that recent reports are showing that Russia wants to take over parts of Poland once Ukraine has been defeated, and nobody in the United States wants that to happen.
"I have a lot of family members that are active-duty military," said Mace. "We don't want to see war with Russia. We don't want to see our troops in Ukraine. I support our European allies and NATO members who want to support Ukraine. They are closest to this fight, and we want to ensure that Ukraine fights this war on its own and that they win because the consequences [of them losing] are going to be far worse."
She acknowledged that the United States has spent about $113 billion trying to send aid to Ukraine, even if it hasn't all gotten there, but said the cost will be much worse if Russia wins.
"The cost to the United States long-term will be at least 10 times that," Mace said. "It will be far more expensive to our nation if that happens and seeing the alliance between Iran and Russia, China and Russia is deeply, deeply disturbing."
Meanwhile, the United States is standing firm against sending F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine, even while NATO members are supplying Russian-made MiG jets, but Mace agreed that the MiGs are the better option, as Ukraine pilots are trained to fly those.
"They need all the support they can get," she said. "Our European allies are stepping up. They're spending a significant portion of their economy and GDP to support Ukraine and support their defenses because if Russia takes over Ukraine, it's not going to stop there. They will invade our allied nations in Europe."
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