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JD Vance’s past comments defending abortion restrictions for pregnancies that result from rape or incest are once again in the spotlight as the Ohio Senator embarks on Donald Trump’s presidential campaign.
Since being tapped as the Republican vice presidential nominee earlier this month, Vance has found himself under a media microscope being called out for changing his position on issues and people to suit Trump’s campaign. Most recently, that attention has been on abortion laws – an issue likely to influence the 2024 election.
In a 2021 interview with SpectrumNews1, Vance suggested he did not believe anti-abortion laws should include exceptions for rape or incest saying, “two wrongs don’t make a right.”
“It’s not whether a woman should be forced to bring a child to term,” the then-Ohio Senate candidate said at the time. “It’s whether a child should be allowed to live even though the circumstances of that child’s birth are somehow inconvenient or a problem to society.”
At the time, the Supreme Court had not overturned Roe v. Wade that gave federal abortion protections. Since then, that has been overturned and states have been on a blitz to pass new laws restricting abortion.
But in an interview last year, Vance changed his position, saying there must be “exceptions for the life of the mother and rape and so forth.”
Despite Vance softening his stance on abortion, Democrats have used it against him, claiming his past comments are his true feelings toward the issue.
Vance’s past comments on abortion have been thrown into the same boat as other statements that have raised eyebrows, such as describing Vice President Kamala Harris as a “miserable” “childless” “cat lady” and Vance’s previous dislike of Trump.
At the Republican National Convention, Vance claimed Democrats “completely twisted” his words from the 2021 interview.
“What I did say is that we sometimes in this society see babies as inconveniences, and I absolutely want us to change that,” Vance said.
The Ohio Senator said it is “completely reasonable” each state chooses its own abortion laws and insisted there must be “respect for the political process” – a stance Trump has stated. In turn, Vance also said during a 2022 debate and interview that he would be OK with “some minimum national standard.”
Vance has also adopted Trump’s stance on the availability of mifepristone, the abortion drug, saying he would not outlaw it.
