GOP vice presidential candidate JD Vance really wanted America to know that he has friends who have had abortions.
Still, before Vance launched into the story of his “dear” friend, he should have signaled to the audience that she’d consented to it being told on national TV. Without that assurance, it sounded like Vance was busting a friend for receiving life-saving health care, which she may or may not have wanted him to do.
The story was meant to induce sympathy. Vance told the audience that his friend “felt like if she hadn't had that abortion, that it would have destroyed her life because she was in an abusive relationship.” Then Vance looked directly into the camera and said, “I know she’s watching tonight, and I love you.”
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Suddenly, I thought of all the women who are friendly with Vance sitting at debate watch parties and feeling all eyes turn on them to wonder, “Is he talking about you?”
At first, Vance seemed to be saying that he understood why his friend sought an abortion. This was a shift from his previous 2023 position when he signed a letter along with other Republicans that insisted “abortion is not health care–it is a brutal act that destroys the life of an unborn child and hurts women.”
Vance acknowledging that he’s close to someone who had an abortion is like saying, “Some of my best friends are Black/Jewish/Muslim” in an attempt to defend against charges of racism/antisemitism/ Islamophobia. Vance turned his friend into a human shield to gain sympathy not for her, but for him.
A closer read shows how the bait-and-switch went down:
Norah O’Donnell: Senator, do you want to respond to the governor's claim? Will you create a federal pregnancy monitoring agency?
What Vance said: No, Norah, certainly we won't.
What Vance meant: “I mean, we’d love to, but it would not be popular. Even I can see that it reeks of Handmaid’s Tale.”
Vance said: And I want to talk about this issue because I know a lot of Americans care about it, and I know a lot of Americans don't agree with everything that I've ever said on this topic.
Vance meant: “Gallup polls show 85% of Americans believe abortion should be legal in at least certain circumstances so I need to clean up on my extremist views to appeal to the center.”
Vance told Norah O’Donnell “let’s be honest.” But really, he wasn’t.
CBS NewsVance said: And, you know, 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. And, you know, one of them is actually very dear to me. And I know she's watching tonight, and I love you. And she told me something a couple years ago that she felt like if she hadn't had that abortion, that it would have destroyed her life because she was in an abusive relationship. And I think that what I take from that, as a Republican who proudly wants to protect innocent life in this country, who proudly wants to protect the vulnerable is that my party, 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.
Vance meant: “I know. I know. It sounded like my takeaway from my dear friend’s story was going to be that abortion is a life-saving choice for many women… Fooled ya! That’s not my takeaway AT ALL.
Vance said: And I think that's one of the things that Donald Trump and I are endeavoring to do. I want us, as a Republican Party, to be pro-family in the fullest sense of the word. I want us to support fertility treatments. I want us to make it easier for moms to afford to have babies. I want it to make it easier for young families to afford a home so they can afford a place to raise that family. And I think there's so much that we can do on the public policy front just to give women more options.
Vance menat: “I still think abortion is a terrible thing and we need to do more to convince women to carry to full term even if they’re in an abusive relationship”.
Vance said: Now, of course, Donald Trump has been very clear that on the abortion policy specifically, that we have a big country and it's diverse.
Vance meant: “Now, of course, Donald Trump has not been very clear. He’s been flip-flopping from saying there has to be some punishment to women who have abortions to saying he would veto a national abortion plan. Basically, my running mate will say anything to make suburban white women vote for him and keep him out of jail.”
The abortion comments were during the debate with Tim Walz, but the truth is it was all about Vance.
Mike Segar/ReutersVance said: And California has a different viewpoint on this than Georgia. Georgia has a different viewpoint from Arizona. And the proper way to handle this, as messy as democracy sometimes is, is to let voters make these decisions, let the individual states make their abortion policy.
Vance meant: “So my own state passed a constitutional amendment in 2023 that codified reproductive rights in the Ohio Constitution, including contraception, fertility treatment, miscarriage care, and abortion up to the point of fetal viability. That’s why I have said flat out, “I certainly would like abortion to be illegal nationally. And yes that would be a national abortion ban with no exceptions for rape and incest because “Two wrongs don’t make a right,”
Vance said: And I think that's what makes the most sense in a very big, a very diverse, and let's be honest, sometimes a very, very messy and divided country.
Vance meant: “I said ‘let’s be honest’ and the statement that followed–that sometimes we are “a very, very messy and divided country”--may have been one of the few honest things I said all evening.”
In short, Vance wants women to have a choice…so long as that choice does not include abortion. He may love his friend but he would have greatly preferred she had the baby even though “it would have destroyed her life.”
Vance calls the issue of abortion “messy,” but Tim Walz was able to sum up his party’s elegant solution in six words: “We trust women. We trust doctors.”
