During Tuesday’s debate between vice presidential candidates Sen. JD Vance (R-OH) and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D), Vance reiterated his support of states creating their own abortion laws and called for the U.S. to be “more pro-baby and pro-family.”
“I grew up in a working-class family in a neighborhood where I knew a lot of young women who had unplanned pregnancies and decided to terminate those pregnancies because they felt like they didn’t have any other options,” he said. “And you know, one of them is actually very dear to me and I know she’s watching tonight, and I love you. And she told me something a couple years ago that she felt like if she hadn’t had that abortion, that it would’ve destroyed her life because she was in an abusive relationship.”
“And I think that what I take from that, as a Republican who proudly wants to protect innocent life in this country, who proudly wants to protect the vulnerable, is that my party, we’ve gotta do so much better of a job at earning the American people’s trust back on this issue where they frankly just don’t trust us,” Vance added.
He continued, stating that he and Trump want the Republican Party to be “pro-family in the fullest sense of the word.”
“I want us to support fertility treatments. I want us to make it easier for moms to afford to have babies. I want to make it easier for young families to afford a home so they can afford a place to raise that family. And I think there’s so much that we can do on the public policy-front just to give women more options,” he said.
“Now of course, Donald Trump has been very clear that on abortion policy, specifically, we have a big country and it’s diverse, and California has a different viewpoint on this than Georgia. Georgia has a different viewpoint from Arizona. And the proper way to handle this, as messy as democracy sometimes is, is to let voters make these decisions,” he said. “Let the individual states make their abortion policy. And I think that’s what makes the most sense in a very big, a very diverse, and let’s be honest, sometimes a very, very messy and divided country.”
In April, Trump revealed his abortion position, ultimately saying that states should set their own abortion policies. Democrats have continued to say he will pass a national abortion ban if he becomes president again, which Trump denies.
Vance concluded by emphasizing the need to respect differing views on the subject while enabling Americans to have families.
“We can be a big and diverse country where we respect people’s freedom of conscience and make the country more pro baby and pro-family,” he said.