In reaction to the Alabama Supreme Court ruling last week which considers embryos created by IVF — whether they’re in or out of a uterus — as children, Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) broke with the decision and wrote on X: “I will stop any and all efforts to ban IVF.”
Mace, who is running for re-election, was called out by her Democratic challenger, Michael B. Moore, who, replied: “You literally co-sponsored a bill to ban IVF.”
In April 2022, Mace voted for the Life at Conception Act (H.R.1011) which “declares that the right to life guaranteed by the Constitution is vested in each human being at all stages of life, including the moment of fertilization, cloning, or other moment at which an individual comes into being.”
Note: All 166 co-sponsors of H.R.1011 are Republicans: five of them are from South Carolina including Mace, Reps. Jeff Duncan, Joe Wilson, William R. Timmons, IV, and Ralph Norman.
You literally co-sponsored a bill to ban IVF. https://t.co/Un8FUiJ2E0 pic.twitter.com/GMXHwPDHVm
— Michael B. Moore (@michael_b_moore) February 24, 2024
Rep. Norman addressed the Alabama IVF ruling on CNN and claimed: “If you go on Main Street, USA, and tell them to name the top ten troubling spots that the country faces, I doubt embryos — the decision in Alabama with the embryo situation or their views in Alabama would come to the top of the list.”
GOP Rep. Norman says women don’t care that Republicans are taking away their reproductive freedom, including IVF pic.twitter.com/fsGTWjWdos
— Biden-Harris HQ (@BidenHQ) February 23, 2024
President Joe Biden argues the Alabama decision is a top concern for many Americans. He said: “I know that folks are worried about what they’re seeing happening to women all across America. I am too. I hear about it everywhere I go.”
Biden added: “My message is: The Vice President and I are fighting for your rights. We’re fighting for the freedom of women, for families, and for doctors who care for these women.”
Mace has been to the left of the MAGA wing of the GOP in the past, urging Republicans to find a “middle” on abortion and warning that otherwise they will be at risk of losing elections.
Mace said in April “We’re going to lose huge if we continue down this path of extremities…The vast majority of people want some sort of gestational limits, not at nine months but somewhere in the middle.”
Mace also said Americans “want exceptions for rape and incest” and for “women to have access to birth control.” Those opinions match national opinion polls, as Mace asserts.
But what the lawmaker says and what she signs represent two different views, as Moore points out. H.R.1011 bestows personhood at the moment of fertilization, which is as far from “somewhere in the middle” as one can go.