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It was exactly two years ago today when Republican-appointed Supreme Court justices overturned Roe v. Wade, launching a brutally regressive campaign that imposed restrictions on Americans’ reproductive rights in many states nationwide.
But to hear GOP Rep. Nancy Mace tell it, those opposed to the high court’s ruling and its consequences can take some comfort in the fact that abortion “is still legal in this country.”
During an appearance on Newsmax, the South Carolina congresswoman specifically said, “Well, I think, you can definitely, you can protect life and you can protect women. Abortion is still legal in this country. It may or may not be legal in your state, but it’s up to the states now.”
Mace added, “But it’s still legal. No one is preventing you from traveling somewhere else, et cetera.”
So, a few things.
First, “et cetera” was doing a lot of work in that sentence. For many Americans, simply traveling from one state to another isn’t nearly as easy as the GOP lawmaker would have the public believe. On the contrary, there are all kinds of practical and financial hurdles — paying for the travel, arranging for transportation and accommodation, finding child care, all while getting time off of work on short notice — that make such an option unavailable for millions of working-class families. For Mace to pretend as if these hardships are irrelevant is ridiculous.
Second, while it’s true that abortion is “still legal” in parts of this country, plenty of Mace’s fellow Republicans, including some prominent members from her own home state, have endorsed national abortion bans to be imposed at the federal level.
Third, the congresswoman said, in a matter-of-fact sort of way, that “no one is preventing” Americans from traveling from a red state to a blue state to terminate an unwanted or dangerous pregnancy. I wish it were that simple, but in reality, Mace’s fellow Republicans in a variety of states have pursued restrictions that would prevent women from going from one state to another for reproductive medical care.
And finally, there’s the simple fact that Americans shouldn’t have to pack their bags and travel great distances in order to have access to routine health care services.
Two years after the demise of Roe, in other words, Mace’s talking points still need work.