Pelosi: Vance’s ‘personal connection’ during abortion debate discussion was ‘clever’ but ‘isn’t real’

Former Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) called Ohio Sen. JD Vance’s (R) “personal connection” to reproductive rights during Tuesday’s vice presidential debate “clever,” but she said “it isn’t real,” stressing it doesn’t show clear support for women to make their own reproductive decisions.

“I think that that was clever to use that personal connection, but it isn’t real in terms of women having the right to make their own decisions and not politicians making their decisions for them,” Pelosi told host Dana Bash in an interview on CNN.

Bash had asked Pelosi what her response was to remarks made by Vance during the debate where the senator opened up about a woman he knew who had an abortion.

“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 feel like they didn’t have any other options,” Vance said during the debate.

“And one of them is actually very dear to me, and I know she’s watching tonight, and I love you. She told me something a couple of years ago that she felt like if she hadn’t had that abortion, it would’ve destroyed her life because she was in an abusive relationship,” he said.

Vance later added, “We’ve got to 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.”

Bash also mentioned an undecided female voter in CNN’s postdebate focus group who had said that Vance’s answer made her more “encouraged” about the GOP ticket because “he sounded more progressive” than expected.

But Pelosi was quick to slam the Trump-Vance ticket on a national abortion ban.

“This administration is for an abortion ban — a national abortion ban — and when they say leave it up to the states, the states have their own abortion bans. We need to protect them by having Roe v. Wade be the national policy of our country,” Pelosi said.

“I don’t know what hope she saw in that,” Pelosi added. “A woman’s right to choose is to choose to have the child or not have the child.”

Former President Trump weighed in on the issue, posting on Truth Social that he would veto a federal abortion ban as the topic was being discussed during the debate. He had previously refused to say whether he would do so.

“Everyone knows I would not support a federal abortion ban, under any circumstances, and would, in fact, veto it, because it is up to the states to decide based on the will of their voters (The will of the people!),” Trump wrote.

Abortion has been a focal point of this election cycle, with this presidential election being the first since Roe v. Wade was overturned.

Recent polling from KFF showed that most voters said they think November’s presidential election will have a “major” impact on abortion access, though more people said they care about the economy and inflation than abortion or any other individual health issue. 

Sixty-one percent of surveyed voters said the outcome of this year’s presidential election will have a major impact on access to abortion in this country — up 10 percentage points from a similar poll in March, according to the data.

The Hill has contacted Vance’s press team for comment.