Vance is “proudly anti-choice and wants to take women back decades. He supports a nationwide ban on abortion, criticizes exceptions for rape and incest survivors,” Biden campaign Chair Jen O’Malley Dillon told reporters.
Mini Timmaraju, president of NARAL Pro-Choice America and a campaign surrogate, pointed to Vance’s support from the anti-abortion group Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America.
“He’s on the record supporting a nationwide abortion ban. And has an A plus rating from the extremist Susan B. Anthony list. He voted against legislation to protect IVF … And it’s unfortunately all too unsurprising,” Timmaraju said.
As Trump’s interest in Vance grew, Vance started reshaping how he talked about abortion.
During his campaign for Senate, Vance applauded the overturning of Roe v. Wade and supported Texas’s ban on abortion, which does not allow exceptions other than cases where the mother’s life is at risk.
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“Two wrongs don’t make a right,” he said in 2021 when asked whether abortion laws should allow for exceptions for rape and incest.
- Now, Vance says exceptions are an essential part of how Republicans need to frame their positions on abortion.
Vance has more recently praised and echoed Trump’s position that states can make their own abortion laws.
In a July 7 interview with NBC’s “Meet the Press,” Vance called Trump a “pragmatic leader” for his leave-it-to-the-states approach.
That’s in contrast to his Senate campaign, when Vance said during the debate in 2022 that “some minimum national standard is totally fine with me.”
Vance said last year on CNN that many Americans “do not want blanket abortion bans” but also opposed Ohio’s constitutional amendment last year that included protections for abortion in the state.
In the same July 7 “Meet the Press” interview, Vance also said he supports mifepristone “being accessible,” even as many conservatives want to ban the drug.
