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ROUNDUP: Vance Can’t Hide from Calling Fall of Roe “An Amazing Victory” And Comparing Abortion To Slavery

July 11, 2022

Columbus, OH – J.D. Vance continues to face backlash for his extreme position and out-of-touch comments cheering on the largest rollback of women’s rights in half a century – including calling rape “inconvenient” and comparing abortion to slavery. Vance has tried to avoid talking about abortion since the ruling – despite praising it as an “amazing victory.”

“J.D. Vance can’t hide from Ohioans that he wants to force survivors of rape and incest to give birth. From now until Election Day, Ohioans will hold Vance accountable for comparing abortion to slavery and telling survivors of sexual assault that the trauma they’ve faced is ‘inconvenient,’” said Michael Beyer, a spokesperson for the Ohio Democratic Party.

Read more below:

Columbus Dispatch: Where do Ohio U.S. Senate candidates J.D. Vance, Tim Ryan stand on abortion rights?
Haley BeMiller
July 11, 2022

  • Republican J.D. Vance and Democratic U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan are vying for the seat being vacated by Sen. Rob Portman. The two would bring staunchly different perspectives on abortion to the U.S. Senate if elected: Vance opposes the procedure unless it’s needed to save the pregnant person, while Ryan wants to eliminate the filibuster to codify Roe.
  • While Vance supports “life of the mother” exceptions, he does not believe pregnant people should be allowed to have abortions in cases of rape or incest. In a Spectrum News 1 interview last year, Vance said “two wrongs don’t make a right.”
  • “It’s not whether a woman should be forced to bring a child to term,” Vance said. “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.”
  • The “Hillbilly Elegy” author and venture capitalist also compared abortion to slavery in an interview with the Catholic Current last year, saying both have a “morally distorting effect” on society. To further his point, he cited a quote from President Abraham Lincoln: “As I would not be a slave, so I would not be a master.”
  • “I think about this in the context of abortion, where you have a lot of people who, I really think, they’d begun to see children as inconveniences to be discarded instead of blessings to cherish,” Vance said.
  • More recently, Vance told a conservative radio host the Supreme Court ruling is a chance for Republicans to lean into the “pro-life label” and ensure people have financial resources to manage unplanned pregnancies. He echoed that on Fox 8 News in Cleveland, saying lawmakers need to give people more options so they see pregnancy – planned or not – as an “opportunity.”

Vice: JD Vance Compared Abortion to Slavery
Cameron Joseph
July 7, 2022

  • JD Vance compared abortion to slavery in an interview last fall, drawing a controversial parallel between America’s original sin and a procedure that until recently was a constitutional right.
  • “There’s something comparable between abortion and slavery, and that while the people who obviously suffer the most are those subjected to it, I think it has this morally distorting effect on the entire society,” Vance, the GOP nominee for an open Ohio Senate seat, said in an interview with the Catholic Current last October.
  • Vance then referenced Abraham Lincoln’s quote “I would not be a slave, so I would not be a master,” before arguing that because of abortion, many Americans have “begun to see children as inconveniences to be discarded, instead of blessings to cherish.”
  • “I really think abortion has really done something very socially destructive to us as people in how we see the most vulnerable and the most dependent among us,” Vance continued. “I think that’s one of the under-appreciated facts about abortion. It’s really distorted our entire society.”

19th News: GOP Senate candidates don’t really want to talk about abortion
Amanda Becker
July 7, 2022

  • In Ohio, J.D. Vance, the Republican nominee for an open Senate seat, said the country is entering a “new phase of the pro-life movement,” quoted from the Christian Bible, and decried the world view that it is “bad for women to become mothers but liberating for them to work 90 hours a week in a cubicle.” He then turned back to rising fuel costs.
  • After the Supreme Court’s June 24 decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, Laxalt, Johnson and Vance all praised the ruling ending nearly 50 years of federal abortion rights. Then, they pivoted back to talking about other issues, like fuel prices or immigration, and did not focus on the role they could play in further restricting abortion rights.
  • “In the aftermath of the Dobbs decision, it’s pretty clear the Democrats are the ones who want to be talking about abortion, and the Republicans don’t,” said Kyle Kondik with Sabato’s Crystal Ball, a publication that provides nonpartisan political analysis based at the University of Virginia Center for Politics.
  • The campaigns for Laxalt and Johnson did not respond to a request for comment on Dobbs’ potential impact. Vance’s campaign could not be reached. The National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) likewise did not respond to a request for comment.

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