Trump VP pick J.D. Vance wants to ban abortion, including in cases of rape or incest

Former President Donald Trump announced on July 15 that he had selected as his running mate first-term Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance, an anti-abortion Republican who has said he would ban abortion at the “moment of conception,” including in cases of rape or incest.

Vance has described himself as “100% pro-life.” 

He called the landmark Supreme Court decision in Roe v. Wade, which had affirmed the right to an abortion before fetal viability, an “abomination,” and said he would not vote to confirm any judges who supported Roe. He praised the Supreme Court for overturning Roe, saying in a now-deleted issues section of his campaign website titled “END ABORTION” that the ruling “puts this new era of society into motion, one that prioritizes family and the sanctity of all life.”

In July 2021, just after announcing his bid for a U.S. Senate seat in Ohio, Vance told right-wing podcaster Allie Beck Stuckey that he’s “not a fan of the various exceptions that are placed in” abortion bans.

“I think, obviously, you know, there are situations where maybe the life of the mother is threatened or look, we’ve obviously got to recognize that there are tough circumstances and tough decisions to be made. But I really think that from the moment of conception, we should be protecting the life of the unborn,” Vance said in the interview.

In September 2021, he said he would support banning abortion in cases in which a pregnancy had resulted from rape or incest. 

“I think two wrongs don’t make a right. At the end of the day, we’re talking about an unborn baby. … It’s not whether a woman should be forced to bring a child to term; 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 the society,” Vance said in an interview with an Ohio news station.

Vance has said that he supports a national abortion ban.

“We need a national right to life in this country, because it’s not just and shouldn’t just be a state issue. This should be a federal, a national issue. We need to defend the right of our children to be born,” Vance said during a candidate forum in October 2021. 

Vance attacked Democratic politicians who don’t have children, telling Fox News’ Tucker Carlson in 2021: “We are effectively run in this country, via the Democrats, via our corporate oligarchs, by a bunch of childless cat ladies who are miserable at their own lives and the choices that they’ve made, and so they want to make the rest of the country miserable too. … The entire future of the Democrats is controlled by people without children. And how does it make any sense that we’ve turned our country over to people who don’t really have a direct stake in it?” 

Abortion rights groups panned Vance’s selection as Trump’s running mate.

“BREAKING: Donald Trump announced his VP pick — yet another unqualified, anti-abortion politician who won’t protect any of your rights,” Planned Parenthood wrote on X. “VP Kamala Harris has dedicated her career to fighting for our reproductive rights with President Biden. JD Vance would never.”