With Vance saying in 2022 that he supports a "minimum national standard" for an abortion ban and arguing that "two wrongs don't make a right" when explaining why he doesn't believe a person who survives rape or incest should be permitted to terminate a resulting pregnancy, Reproductive Freedom for All said it's clear the vice presidential nominee would continue working "in lockstep with extremist Republican" to ban abortion care nationwide.
As U.S. voters have resoundingly shown their support for abortion rights following the U.S. Supreme Court's overturning of Roe v. Wade in 2022—with traditionally red states like Kansas and Kentucky among those that have rejected efforts to restrict abortion—Trump and the GOP have recently attempted to portray themselves as "moderating" their views on the matter in recent months.
In April Trump declined to publicly endorse a nationwide 15-week abortion ban, saying the issue of abortion rights should be decided by "the law of the state," while the GOP platform released last week omitted a section calling for a nationwide ban—efforts that reproductive rights groups warned should not allay fears about the party's actual views on abortion care.
Advocates said Vance's own voting history and positions have clearly exposed how a second Trump administration would govern on reproductive freedom.
Shortly after Trump announced his vice presidential pick, The Lever reported on an effort Vance embarked on last year to rescind a federal privacy rule barring police from accessing the medical records of people who seek abortions.
The Biden administration introduced the rule in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, which overturned Roe v. Wade and cleared the way for 14 states to ban abortion care. The rule is aimed at stopping police in anti-abortion states from tracking down people who have crossed state lines to receive care and prosecuting them.
As The Lever noted, the right-wing political agenda Project 2025, which Vance has said contains "good ideas," calls for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to "ensure that every state reports exactly how many abortions take place within its borders, at what gestational age of the child, for what reason, the mother's state of residence, and by what method."
Vance joined 28 other GOP lawmakers last year in pushing HHS to withdraw the privacy rule, and would likely help bring that effort to fruition if he and Trump win the November election.
The senator's opposition to the right to privacy for patients who obtain abortions is a "five-alarm fire," said Leah Greenberg, co-executive director of progressive advocacy group Indivisible.
Vance recently has attempted to distance himself from his own extreme views on abortion, saying last year that Americans "do not want blanket abortion bans" and that laws must include exceptions to protect the life of a pregnant patient. He has also been denounced by some in the pro-forced pregnancy movement for saying he supports access to mifepristone, a pill used in medication abortions.
But Indivisible urged voters to see for themselves how Vance describes his views on the matter on his official website, where he states that "abortion has turned our country into a place where we see children as an inconvenience to be thrown away."
Reproductive Freedom for All added that Vance dodged a question in December 2023 about whether he is among the Republican lawmakers who oppose access to birth control.
In June, Vance voted against a bill to affirm that Americans have the right to seek in vitro fertilization—yet attacks on people who do not have children have become a key talking point for the senator. He has criticized the "childless left" and said politicians including Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) and Vice President Kamala Harris—who don't have biological children of their own—do not "have a direct stake in the future of the country."
"J.D. Vance is an extremist weirdo who just blocked a bill to protect IVF and suggested in his book that people should stay in violent marriages for the sake of their kids," said Evergreen Action organizer Courtney Bourgoin after the selection was made public. "Yes, Trump 2.0 would be far worse than the first time."
