A vote was held Thursday in the House to reverse a new Biden administration policy that reimburses travel costs for service members seeking abortions. Senator Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) has a hold placed on all Biden judicial nominees over the same question.

I’ve written about the hold Tuberville has placed in the Senate. Biden has taken up personally attacking Tuberville for not backing down. Tuberville rightly notes that the Department of Defense’s new policy would be a violation of the Hyde Amendment, in my opinion. Democrats are angry that Tuberville won’t back down and Biden has begun attacking him in speeches. Desperate Democrats are retaliating by puffing up a story to make Tuberville look like a white supremacist. Tuberville said in the past that he will release the hold if a vote is taken in the Senate.

Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) was angry Thursday when the House took up the new policy and voted on it. She claims it is a wrong move for Republicans to make, especially with the 2024 presidential election coming up. She said it will alienate women voters and independents. It gives Democrats fodder to attack Republicans for not supporting women in the military. And, she said, there are other issues that need to be taken up for women in the military, which have not been so far.

“We should not be taking this fucking vote, man. Fuck,” a visibly frustrated Mace was overheard venting to her staff in an elevator, apparently referring to Thursday’s vote to reverse Biden administration policy on reimbursing travel costs for service members seeking abortions. “It’s an asshole move, an asshole amendment.”

Asked for comment, Mace said this in a statement: “I’m all for having these conversations and debates, but doing so as part of a bill which could jeopardize our national security is wrong. Traditionally the NDAA is bipartisan legislation. This year’s bill could be historically partisan.”

Mace ended up voting in favor of the move by Republicans to take that language out of the NDAA. Abortion is a hot button issue. If she had not stuck with Republicans on the vote, she would have felt it when she runs for re-election. Democrats will use abortion in the 2024 elections just as they did in the 2022 midterm elections against Republicans.

In the Politico piece about her vote, she explains she doesn’t think that the Republican Party going further to the right on abortion is the answer. A majority of Americans say that a 14-15 week limit on abortion is reasonable. A six-week ban, however, is going too far.

Mace spoke to Sarah in more detail about her frustrations with her own party. “What are we going to do for women?” she asked, pointing to a string of issues that she sees the House GOP majority as ignoring, from rape test backlogs to the foster care system to child care costs. “We have touched none of that this year. That’s my frustration.”

Mace is concerned that Republicans are jeopardizing their majority in the House. That’s a legitimate concern as long as the party leadership fails to communicate a policy statement on issues like abortion.

The passage of the NDAA is in question. Democrats are looking to take a stand and vote no to protest the Republican amendments approved by votes Thursday night. Besides the removal of language that would reimburse service members for abortion travel expenses, there were also votes on banning transgender healthcare for troops and a move to defund diversity initiatives. There were some defeats, too. An attempt by some conservatives to strike $300M on funding to Ukraine and prohibit further security assistance was defeated.

Mace has a reputation for going her own way when voting. She does have some experience with the military that may weigh on her votes. In 1999 she became the first woman to graduate from The Citadel’s Corps of Cadets program, receiving a degree in business administration. In 2019, she successfully advocated for the inclusion of exceptions for rape and incest in a bill for a six-week abortion ban that passed the South Carolina state house. She revealed that at age 16 she was raped. She is pro-life and opposes abortion. She believes that government does not have the right to deny an abortion to a victim of rape or incest. This opinion is also in line with the majority of voters. Most people believe there should be exceptions to abortion bans for rape and incest victims, as well as for the life of the mother.