Republican Senate candidate JD Vance diverted when he was asked in a debate on Monday evening about a 10-year-old who was raped in Ohio and had to leave the state to secure an abortion, blaming illegal immigration for the girl being raped.
Moderators asked Mr Vance and Representative Tim Ryan, the Democratic nominee, a story that made national headlines wherein a 10-year-old girl was raped and had to go to Indiana to seek an abortion. Ohio limits abortion after six weeks and, at the time, Indiana had more lax abortion laws.
“I have said repeatedly on the record, that I think that that girl should be able to get an abortion if she and her family soon choose to do so,” Mr Vance said.
But Mr Vance diverted the question and focused on the person who allegedly committed the rape.
“The thing they never mentioned is that poor girl was raped by an illegal alien, somebody that should have never been in this state in the first place,” he said. In turn, he criticised Mr Ryan for having what he called a lax position on border security.
“You voted so many times against border wall funding so many times for amnesty, Tim,” Mr Vance said. “If you had done your job, she would have never been raped in the first place.”
Mr Vance and Mr Ryan are locked in a tight race in Ohio, a state former president Donald Trump won in 2016 and 2020. Mr Trump endorsed Mr Vance ahead of the primary, which contributed to his victory.
But polls are tight and some have shown Mr Ryan leading against Mr Vance.
Mr Vance added that he thought that there should be some restrictions on abortion.
“Ohio is gonna want to have different abortion laws in California than Texas,” he said. “And I think I think Ohio should have that right. But some minimum national standard is totally fine with me.”
Mr Ryan for his part was asked about why he changed his position from opposing abortion to supporting abortion rights.
“I had some very personal conversations with women in Ohio, who had gone through tragedies who needed to have abortions for a variety of different reasons,” he said. “And I just came to realize through the course of these conversations, that the government has no place in this matter, that this needs to be left to the woman.”
