Major national pro-life organizations hailed Sen. J.D. Vance’s record on abortion Monday but some dissonant voices argue he is not fully committed to the pro-life cause because of recent comments on mifepristone, the abortion pill.
National Right to Life called him “an excellent choice.” Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America said former President Donald Trump made an “exceptional selection” as his running mate.
His courage in exposing the Democrats’ agenda of abortion for any reason, even in the seventh, eighth, or ninth month, helped propel him to a decisive victory in the 2022 midterm elections,” said Marjorie Dannenfelser, the SBA president.
But Created Equal, an Ohio-based organization, said Mr. Vance has joined a broader GOP retreat on pro-life issues.
“Historically, J.D. Vance has been a strong pro-life advocate. Recently, however, he, along with other Republicans, have caved on their position on abortion,” said Mark Harrington, the group’s president. “This includes Vance’s recent acceptance of the abortion pill. J.D. Vance is not pro-life. He is pro-choice.”
That was a reference to Mr. Vance’s interview with NBC earlier this month where he said he supports mifepristone “being accessible” after a Supreme Court ruling shot down a challenge to the pill’s approval.
“I do,” he told “Meet the Press.”
Mr. Vance, 39, was elected to the Senate in 2022 in a campaign where he said his goal was to “end abortion.”
“I am 100% pro-life, and believe that abortion has turned our society into a place where we see children as an inconvenience to be thrown away rather than a blessing to be nurtured,” he said. “Eliminating abortion is first and foremost about protecting the unborn, but it’s also about making our society more pro-child and pro-family.”
He praised the Supreme Court’s 2022 Dobbs decision that overturned Roe v. Wade, the 1973 ruling that had created a national right to abortion through the first trimester and some of the second trimester. The effect of Dobbs was to return the issue to the states.
Pro-choice advocates excoriated Mr. Trump’s selection of Mr. Vance on Monday, as did the Biden campaign.
“He’s proudly anti-choice and wants to take women back decades. He supports a nationwide ban on abortion, criticizes exceptions for rape and incest survivors, saying ‘two wrongs don’t make a right’ and calling those circumstances ‘inconvenient,’” said Jen O’Malley Dillon, Mr. Biden’s campaign chair.
Abortion has been a losing issue for Republicans in the wake of the Dobbs decision, as pro-choice forces have won state referendums enshrining or expanding the right to abortion.
One of those votes came in 2023 in Ohio, Mr. Vance’s home state, where voters last year approved a constitutional amendment enshrining abortion access.
Mr. Vance at the time called the vote “a gut punch.”
“We have to recognize how much voters mistrust us (meaning elected Republicans) on this issue,” he said on social media.
He said voters in the state were comparing the abortion rights amendment to Ohio’s fetal heartbeat law, which restricted abortions. He said voters saw both sides as “extreme,” but preferred the pro-choice extreme over the pro-life one.
Mr. Vance said the GOP answer had to be restrictions with exceptions.
“Give people a choice between abortion restrictions very early in pregnancy with exceptions, or the pro-choice position, and the pro-life view has a fighting chance. Give people a heartbeat bill with no exceptions and it loses 65-35,” he said.
On Monday, speaking to Fox News’s Sean Hannity, Mr. Vance said the GOP must rush to the middle ground, embracing restrictions with “reasonable” exceptions and supporting policies that make the choice to have children easier.
He again blasted Democrats as extreme. “They’re the ones who want pro-life Christians to pay for abortions at 39 weeks. It’s insane,” he said.
• Stephen Dinan can be reached at sdinan@washingtontimes.com.
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