Republican Arizona U.S. Senate candidate Kari Lake, a staunch opponent to abortion, reportedly is lobbying lawmakers in her state to find an alternative to a Civil War-era state law that calls for an almost outright ban on the procedure.
Lake appears to be shifting to a more moderate stance on abortion favored by former President Donald Trump, the presumptive GOP presidential candidate in November, and Republicans need to strike that kind of a tone, Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., told Newsmax on Monday.
"It's an indication of how important the role of abortion will be in the 2024 election," Mace told "Rob Schmitt Tonight." "We saw its effect in 2022, especially in the House. We lost seats that we should have won because we didn't talk about [abortion] in a compassionate way how Republicans support women and where that middle ground is.
"That middle ground is found in exceptions that the vast majority of Americans support. We're talking about life of the mother, victims of rape, girls who are victims of incest. We're talking about birth control. Access for women that don't have it. … We're talking about abortion services. We're talking about IVF [in vitro fertilization]. All those things that Republicans want to traditionally bury their heads in the sand."
Arizona's Supreme Court on April 9 revived a near-total ban on abortion, invoking an 1864 state law that prohibits the procedure except to save a mother's life and punishes providers with prison time. Lake and Trump have criticized the law as being too extreme.
On April 8, Trump, whose three Supreme Court appointments helped end the federal right to an abortion in June 2022, declined to endorse a federal abortion ban and said the issue should be left to the states.
"This is an issue where I believe we have the best positions," Mace said. "We're pro-woman and we're pro-life. Those are the things that we should be talking about this election cycle. But also, we know all these races are influenced by the issue of abortion because the Left has weaponized it and weaponized women against the Republican Party."
South Carolina's GOP-led Legislature in 2023 passed a law restricting abortions once cardiac activity can be detected, at about six weeks of pregnancy. But it does have exceptions: to save the life of the mother, to prevent serious risk to the woman's physical health, if the baby is not expected to survive the pregnancy, and if the pregnancy is a result of rape and/or incest. Later that year, the state Supreme Court upheld the law.
Mace said an opponent in her Republican primary, Catherine Templeton, supports a ban on abortions without exceptions.
"These kinds of candidates, these radical extreme positions will lose us in the general election in November," Mace said. "I know this. I just polled my district [and] over 95% of my Republican primary voters support all of the exceptions. I have been right on this issue for a long time. I've been advocating for women and advocating for life since the overturning of Roe v. Wade.
"This is common sense kind of stuff, and I bent Donald Trump's ear on this issue. I just went down to [Florida] over a week ago, we talked about women's issues. He is so right on so many policies, whether we're talking about ending foreign wars, whether we're talking about immigration, the border, whether we're talking about women's issues, he's smart on all of these issues."
About NEWSMAX TV:
NEWSMAX is the fastest-growing cable news channel in America!
- Find Newsmax channel in your home via cable and satellite systems – More Info Here
- Watch Newsmax+ on your home TV app or smartphone and watch it anywhere! Try it for FREE -- See More Here: NewsmaxPlus.com
Michael Katz ✉
Michael Katz is a Newsmax reporter with more than 30 years of experience reporting and editing on news, culture, and politics.
© 2024 Newsmax. All rights reserved.