Ohio Senator JD Vance, Donald Trump‘s running mate, said on Sunday that he “absolutely” commits to the former president not imposing a federal abortion ban despite his previous stance on the issue.
Abortion is just one issue that has been significant for voters since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in June 2022, as many Republican-controlled states have put abortion restrictions into effect with 21 states banning or restricting the medical procedure at every stage of pregnancy.
Following months of speculation on Trump’s abortion stance amid the 2024 election, Trump, the GOP’s presidential nominee, has said that he thinks abortion limits should be left to the states and declined to endorse a federal abortion ban.
“My view is now that we have abortion where everybody wanted it from a legal standpoint, the states will determine by vote or legislation or perhaps both,” he said in a video posted to his Truth Social account. in April. “And whatever they decide must be the law of the land—in this case, the law of the state.”
Trump has previously labeled himself the “most pro-life president in American history” during the campaign trail and spoke about appointing the Supreme Court justices who helped overturn Roe.
Vance, meanwhile, has cast himself as a staunch social conservative and close ally to the former president since his 2022 election to the U.S. Senate. However, his stances on issues like abortion have sparked fierce backlash from Democrats after Trump picked him as his running mate in July.
While Vance has previously said he would want a nationwide ban on the medical procedure, he has since towed Trump’s line on the issue, leaving it up to states to decide their own laws on it.
Appearing on NBC News’ Meet The Press on Sunday morning for an interview, Vance was asked by host Kristen Welker that if he and Trump are elected if he can commit to Trump not imposing a federal ban on abortion.
Vance responded: “I can absolutely commit that. Donald Trump has been as clear about that as possible…Donald Trump wants to end this culture war over this particular topic…So I think Donald Trump is right. We want the federal government to focus on these big economic and immigration questions. Let the states figure out their own abortion policy.”
Newsweek has reached out to Vance’s campaign spokesperson and Harris’ campaign via email for comment.
When asked by Welker about push back from other Republicans and “if such a piece of legislation landed on Donald Trump’s desk, would he veto it?” Vance said he thinks Trump “would be very clear and not support it.”
When asked more directly if Trump would veto a federal abortion ban, the senator responded: “I think he would. He said that explicitly that he would.”
Renewed criticism of Vance’s stance on abortion came when he was asked about his stance on it and whether a woman should be forced to carry a pregnancy to full term after she had been a victim of rape or incest in a resurfaced interview with Spectrum News in 2021.
“I think two wrongs don’t make a right. At the end of the day, we’re talking about an unborn baby. What kind of society do we want to have? Do we want to have a society that sees unborn babies as inconveniences to be discarded?” he said.
Vance added: “It’s not whether a woman should be forced to bring a child to term, it’s whether a child should be allowed to live, even though the circumstances of that child’s birth are somehow inconvenient or a problem to the society. The question really, to me, is about the baby.”
Vance continued to defend himself last month in an interview with Fox News‘ Sean Hannity after his role as Trump’s running mate was revealed.
When Hannity asked Vance about the Spectrum News interview, he answered: “The Democrats have completely twisted my words. What I did say, is that we sometimes, in this society, see babies as an inconvenience and I absolutely want us to change that, I do want us to be more pro-life.”
He went on to continue to support Trump’s abortion policy, which he described as a “reasonable” one “to let voters in those states make decisions.”
Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic presidential nominee, who will face off against Trump has consistently supported abortion rights and has spoken out against the numerous state-level abortion bans implemented in recent years. When she was a senator, she voted against a bill that would ban abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy and, as vice president, spoke out against the Court’s decision to overturn Roe.
Harris’ running mate, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz has been a vocal champion of reproductive rights and helped enact sweeping protections in his state. Minnesota was the first state to pass a law protecting abortion rights after the overturning of Roe. Abortion is legal throughout pregnancy in the state, making Minnesota a destination for the procedure for those in other states with bans.
