Sen. J.D. Vance said during the vice presidential debate on Tuesday that Republicans needed to do a better job of talking about abortion, as many women did not feel like they had a choice.
He said that he knew many women who chose abortion in his community, including an unnamed friend.
‘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.
‘One of them is actually very dear to me, and I know she’s watching tonight, and I love you.’
Vance kept the details of the woman he was talking about vague, but said she was in ‘an abusive relationship.’
JD Vance spoke about a woman he knew who was ‘very dear’ to him that had an abortion
He supported the idea of states setting abortion law, but urged the Republican Party to do a better job about talking about the issue.
‘We’ve got to do so much better of a job at the American people’s trust back on this issue where they frankly, just don’t trust us,’ he said.
He called for Republicans to support fertility treatments and make it easier for women to afford having children.
‘I want us to make it easier for moms to afford to have babies. I wanted to make it easier for young families to afford a home, so they can afford a place to raise that family.’
Gov. Tim Walz brought up the case of 28-year-old Amber Thurman, who died from an infection after she used abortion pills to end her pregnancy.
Vance agreed that Thurman’s death was a tragedy.
Sen J.D. Vance and Gov Tim Walz debate abortion during the vice presidential debate
‘Amber Thurman should still be alive. There are a lot of people that should still be alive,’ Vance said.
He described Minnesota’s permissive abortion law as ‘barbaric’ as he claimed the law signed by Walz allowed doctors to end the life of a child that survived an abortion.
‘As I read the Minnesota law that you signed it says the doctor who presides over an abortion where the baby survives, the doctor is under no obligation to provide life-saving care to a baby who survives a botched late-term abortion,’ he said. ‘That is fundamentally barbaric.’
Walz protested that it should be the right of the woman and her doctors to make the decision about her pregnancy.
‘These are women’s decisions to make. And the physicians who know best,’ he said.
‘I asked a question, and you gave me a slogan,’ Vance responded.
