On Tuesday in At the vice presidential debate in New York, JD Vance stared dead-eyed directly into the camera and tried to distance himself from virtually every public position he had ever taken on reproductive rights.

Polls suggest that abortion is the second most important concern for voters, especially women voters, just behind the economy. This is obviously a problem for the Trump-Vance Party, considering that Trump is arguably the man most responsible for eliminating federal abortion protections, and his vice presidential candidate is an even more outspoken anti-abortion candidate than he is.

Since entering the nation’s political stage two years ago, the Ohio senator has left a trail of damaging views on the issue on every platform he has appeared on.

He has supported a nationwide ban on abortion. ​​“I definitely want abortion to be illegal on a national level,” Vance told an Australian podcaster while running for Senate, explaining that it would become too easy for women to travel across state lines to get one Obtaining abortion care if different states had different laws. Later in that conversation, he imagined a scenario in which “George Soros sends a 747 to Columbus to invite disproportionate numbers of black women to have abortions in California.”

He rejected exceptions to abortion bans – including for rape and incest – and equated the medical procedure with the practice of slavery. He said: “There is something comparable between abortion and slavery, and that is that the people who obviously suffer the most from it are the people who are affected by it.” I think it has a morally distorting effect on society as a whole.”

On Tuesday, Vance acknowledged that his views on abortion are not very popular with “many Americans.” So far, so true! His response went off the rails afterward when Vance feigned empathy and mentioned a conversation he had with a friend in an abusive relationship who terminated an unwanted pregnancy that would have “destroyed her life.”

The problem is that Vance has repeatedly stated that he does not believe such abortions — or abortions sought by rape victims or incest victims — are justified. (“Two wrongs don’t make a right,” he said.)

He further denied – after CBS anchor Norah O’Donnell reminded Vance that anyone who does not support a national ban is “making the United States the most barbaric abortion regime in the world” – that he had ever supported such a ban .

“I have never supported a national ban,” Vance replied. “When I ran for Senate in 2022, I talked about setting a national minimum standard.” … Which is a ban in the truest sense of the word: a minimum point at which a woman can no longer receive that abortion care.

From there, Vance moved forward, attempting to rewrite the history of his response when voters in his home state of Ohio approved a measure that would enshrine reproductive rights in the state’s constitution. “The people of Ohio voted overwhelmingly against my position,” he said Tuesday. “What I’m learning from this is that we have to do a better job of regaining people’s trust.”

That’s a far cry from what Vance said back then. “Giving up the unborn child is not an option. It is politically stupid and morally repugnant. Instead, we must understand why we lost this battle so we can win the war,” Vance wrote after the passage of Ohio’s abortion ballot measure. (He added: “There’s something sociopathic about a political movement that tells young women (and men) that murdering their own children is liberating. So let’s keep fighting for our country’s children and find a way to win.”)

After all that, Vance had the audacity to claim on Tuesday that he and Trump are “committed to pursuing family-friendly policies, making child care more accessible and fertility treatments more accessible.”

This is, unsurprisingly, another verifiable lie: Just two weeks ago, the Senate voted to protect the right to in vitro fertilization nationwide. Vance skipped the vote. (In July, Vance voted to block a similar IVF measure.) The bill was deemed necessary because earlier this year, a Republican-appointed Alabama Supreme Court justice issued a ruling that struck down the legality of fertility treatments in question and temporarily barred Down facilities across the state.

Vance said Tuesday that he doesn’t support monitoring women’s pregnancies — another lie. Vance joined other Republican lawmakers in signing a letter opposing the Biden administration’s efforts to protect women’s medical records from being shared with law enforcement. (Project 2025, the Heritage Foundation’s agenda for Trump’s next term, calls for a federal monitor.) It was a truly stunning display of dissimulation.

In the meantime, it would be hard to find a clearer contrast to reproductive rights than the man standing at the other end of the stage. Walz has been an advocate for abortion rights for years. Long before the Supreme Court decided to strike down the federal right to abortion, Walz was an uncompromising advocate for reproductive rights. Walz ran in a deep red district that had elected exactly one other Democrat in more than 100 years, defeating a six-term incumbent who had voted to ban abortion. At the time, Walz said he opposed the bill “because we know that if you start criminalizing it, it has nothing to do with reducing abortions.”

In Congress, Walz earned perfect ratings at both Planned Parenthood and NARAL (now known as Reproductive Freedom for All), and when he left to run for governor of Minnesota, he proudly declared, “My record is so pro-choice , Nancy Pelosi.” asked if I should tone it down. I stand with Planned Parenthood!” He won that race, and after the Dobbs decision, Walz became the first governor in the country to sign a new law making abortion rights legal.

“This is a very simple proposal,” Walz said Tuesday. “These are women’s decisions – about their health care.”