Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio) has been reshaping how he talks about abortion amid widespread speculation that he could be tapped as former President Trump’s running mate.
Much like Trump, who is expected to announce his vice president pick by this weekend, Vance has been trying to show he can moderate on the issue.
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.
“Two wrongs don’t make a right,” he said in 2021 when asked whether abortion laws should allow for exceptions for rape and incest.
When pressed about whether a woman “should be forced to carry a child to term” after being the victim of rape or incest, Vance said he rejected the premise of the question.
“It’s not whether a woman should be forced to bring a child to term,” he said, but “whether a child should be allowed to live even though the circumstances of that child’s birth are somehow inconvenient or a problem to society.”
However, the next year, Vance said during a debate “I’ve always believed in reasonable exceptions.”
When voters in his home state approved a constitutional amendment protecting abortion and other forms of reproductive health care, Vance called it a “gut punch.” In a post on X in November 2023, Vance said state anti-abortion laws need exceptions for them to have a chance at passing.
“This is not about moral legitimacy but political reality,” he wrote.
Vance has more recently praised and echoed Trump’s position that states can make their own abortion laws, and said he’s always believed that there needs to be exceptions for rape, incest and the mother’s life.
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.”
In the same “Meet the Press” interview, Vance also said he supports mifepristone “being accessible,” even as many conservatives want to ban the drug.
“The Supreme Court made a decision in saying that the American people should have access to that medication, Donald Trump has supported that opinion, I support that opinion,” Vance said.
Vance was referencing comments Trump made during the presidential debate last month, when he said he agreed with the Supreme Court and would not block access to mifepristone if he returns to the Oval Office.
Last month, the court dismissed a challenge to expanded access to mifepristone for lack of standing. But the decision was only procedural and left open the possibility of future cases brought by different plaintiffs.
The shifting stance of Vance, a Trump critic-turned-supporter, is emblematic of the GOP’s complicated relationship with abortion, as the party struggles to get on the same page just days before the start of the Republican National Convention.
“I think the entire Republican Party is adjusting its messaging in a post-Roe world,” said Mark Weaver, a veteran Ohio Republican strategist.
Weaver said Vance is positioning himself to be Trump’s running mate, “and if Trump comes knocking, JD Vance will be dressed up and ready to go.”
But because the party is still trying to figure out the best way to talk about abortion, “there’s nothing lost in the venture” if Vance isn’t tapped, Weaver said.
Indeed, much of the Republican party is embracing Trump’s position: The party’s formal platform doesn’t explicitly call for a national abortion ban, nor does it explicitly call for legislation to give a fetus equal rights.
Instead, it assumes the Constitution’s 14th Amendment already grants fetal personhood and says states can pass laws to that effect.
The debate over fetal personhood has been particularly tricky for Republicans trying to square their support for access to in vitro fertilization (IVF) with views of some Christian conservatives who argue fertilized embryos, often discarded in the IVF process, should be treated as people.
While anti-abortion and religious groups said they thought the platform had been softened, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), another potential VP pick, defended the change.
“I think our platform has to reflect our nominee, and our nominee’s position happens to be one ground in reality,” he told CNN’s Dana Bash.
Trump has tread carefully on abortion, as he and other Republicans try to placate their base without losing moderate Republicans and independents.
Trump has faced relentless political attacks from Democrats since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022. Trump appointed three of the justices whose votes triggered the overturning of the landmark ruling that had protected abortion access.
The former president has said states should be left to enact individual laws on abortion via legislatures or ballot referendums, calling it a “beautiful thing to watch” as some states enshrine abortion rights and others enact restrictive bans without exceptions.
He has criticized states that he thinks go too far in their abortion bans, like Florida and Arizona. But as president, his administration also threatened to cut federal funding from California unless it dropped a state requirement that private health insurers cover abortion.
There have been no explicit campaign promises from Trump about abortion, but it has been a clear issue of focus as Trump mulls a vice-presidential pick.
When asked about North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum as a potential pick, Trump told Fox News Radio on Wednesday “it’s an issue” that Burgum signed a near-total abortion ban.
“You know, I think Doug is great. But it is a strong, he’s taken a very strong stance, or the state has, I don’t know if it’s Doug, but the state has, so it’s an issue,” Trump said.
Vance seemingly has no such baggage. As one Ohio Democratic strategist said, that’s by design.
“If you want to know where JD Vance stands on anything you ask Donald Trump,” said Jeff Rusnak, head of the Ohio-based R Strategy Group. “His position on reproductive rights has nothing to do with understanding where the population is and what voters believe. It’s all about, ‘How do I appeal to Trump?’”