JD Vance tries to rewrite his abortion position during the VP debate

On Tuesday During the vice presidential debate in New York, JD Vance stared dead-eyed into the camera and tried to distance himself from virtually every public position he has ever taken on reproductive rights.

Polls show that abortion is one of the top concerns for voters — especially female voters — second only to the economy. That’s clearly a problem for the Trump-Vance ticket, given that Trump is arguably the man most responsible for ending federal protections against abortion, and that his running mate is even more anti-abortion than he.

Since the Ohio senator entered the national political stage two years ago, he has left a trail of damaging views on the subject on every platform he has appeared on.

He supported a national abortion ban. “I would certainly like to see abortion become illegal at a national level,” Vance told an Australian podcaster when he ran for Senate, explaining that when different states have different laws it becomes too easy for women to travel across state lines to travel to receive abortion care. . Later in that conversation, he imagined a scenario in which “George Soros sends a 747 to Columbus to disproportionately load up black women so they can have abortions in California.”

He opposed exceptions – including for rape and incest – to abortion bans, and equated the medical procedure with the practice of slavery, saying: “There is something similar between abortion and slavery, even though the people who are clearly the most suffering are those who are subjected to it . I think it has a morally distorting effect on society as a whole.”

Vance acknowledged Tuesday that his views on abortion are not very popular with “many Americans.” So far so true! His response then went off the rails, when Vance feigned empathy and mentioned a conversation he had with a boyfriend in an abusive relationship who ended an unwanted pregnancy that “would have destroyed her life.”

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The problem is that Vance has repeatedly said he does not believe such abortions — or abortions sought by rape victims or by victims of incest — are justified. (“Two wrongs don’t make a right,” he said.)

He further denied — after CBS moderator Norah O’Donnell reminded Vance that he said anyone who doesn’t support a national ban “makes the United States the most barbaric, pro-abortion regime in the world” — that he has ever supported such a ban.

“I have never supported a national ban,” Vance shot back. “When I ran for Senate in 2022, I talked about establishing a national minimum standard.” …Which is literally a ban: a minimum point after which a woman can no longer receive this abortion care.

From there, Vance went on to try to rewrite history on his response when voters in his home state of Ohio approved a measure that would enshrine reproductive rights in the state’s constitution. “Ohioans voted overwhelmingly against my position,” he said Tuesday. “What I learn from this is that we need to do a better job of regaining people’s trust.”

That’s a far cry from what Vance said at the time. “Giving up the unborn is not an option. It is politically stupid and morally repugnant. Instead, we must understand why we lost this battle so we can win the war,” Vance wrote after Ohio’s abortion vote passed. (He added: “There is something sociopathic about a political movement that tells young women (and men) that it is liberating to kill their own children. So let’s keep fighting for our country’s children, and let’s have a find a way to win.”)

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After all that, Vance had the audacity on Tuesday to claim that he and Trump “are committed to pursuing pro-family policies, and making child care accessible and fertility treatment more accessible.”

That’s, not surprisingly, another demonstrable lie: Just two weeks ago, the Senate held a vote to protect the right to in vitro fertilization nationwide. Vance skipped the vote. (In July, Vance voted to block a similar IVF measure.) The bill was seen as necessary because earlier this year a Republican-appointed Alabama Supreme Court judge issued a ruling questioning the legality of fertility treatments, prompting fertility treatments were temporarily closed. tearing down facilities across the state.

Vance said Tuesday he did not support monitoring women’s pregnancies — another lie. Vance, along with other Republican lawmakers, signed a letter opposing the Biden administration’s efforts to protect women’s medical records from dissemination with law enforcement agencies. (Project 2025, the Heritage Foundation’s agenda for Trump’s next term, envisions a federal monitor.) It was truly a stunning display of hypocrisy.

Meanwhile, you’d be hard-pressed to find a clearer contrast on reproductive rights than the man standing on the other side of the stage. Walz has been an advocate of abortion rights for years. Long before the Supreme Court decided to overturn the federal right to abortion, Walz was an unapologetic advocate for reproductive rights. Finding himself in a deep-red district that had elected exactly one other Democrat in more than a hundred years, Walz defeated a six-term incumbent president who voted to ban abortions. Walz said at the time that he opposed that bill “because we know that when you start criminalizing it, it has nothing to do with reducing abortions.”

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In Congress, Walz maintained perfect ratings from both Planned Parenthood and NARAL (now known as Reproductive Freedom for All), and when he left to campaign for the governorship of Minnesota, he proudly declared, “My record is so pro- choice Nancy Pelosi asked if I should tone it down. I support Planned Parenthood!” He won that race, and after the Dobbs decision, Walz became the nation’s first governor to sign new legislation enshrining the right to abortion into law.

“This is a very simple proposal,” Walz said Tuesday. “These are the decisions women have to make – about their health care.”