In response to Donald Trump’s recently-nominated running mate JD Vance pandering to anti-choice extremists at a Faith and Freedom Coalition event the day after reporting showed he wants abortion to be “illegal nationally,” DNC Spokesperson Aida Ross released the following statement: 

“JD Vance is leaving zero doubt about his extreme anti-choice agenda, telling the radically anti-choice Faith and Freedom Coalition they’ll ‘have a seat’ at the Trump-Vance ticket’s table less than 24 hours after audio surfaced of him admitting he wants ‘abortion to be illegal nationally.’ It’s no surprise that Vance spent one of his first speeches as the GOP vice presidential nominee pandering to an organization led by Ralph Reed – a Trump ally who backs a total abortion ban – since he’s just as hellbent on ripping away our basic rights. Every day, Trump and Vance remind us that their anti-choice Project 2025 agenda to restrict reproductive freedom is too dangerous, out-of-touch, and extreme for the American people.”

After new reporting revealed he wants abortion to be “illegal nationally,” JD Vance told far-right anti-choice extremists they’ll “always have a place at the table” at a Faith and Freedom Coalition event.

Vance: “There has been a lot of rumbling in the past few weeks that the Republican Party of now, the Republican Party of the future is not going to be a place that’s welcoming to social conservatives. And really from the bottom of my heart I would say that is not true. Social conservatives have a seat at this table and they always will so long as I have any influence in this party, and President Trump I know agrees.”

CNN: “JD Vance said in 2022 he ‘would like abortion to be illegal nationally’”

“‘I certainly would like abortion to be illegal nationally,’ Vance said in January 2022 on a podcast when running for Senate.

“During a podcast interview in January 2022, then-candidate JD Vance said he ‘certainly would like abortion to be illegal nationally’ and was ‘sympathetic’ to the view that a national ban was necessary to stop women from traveling across states to obtain an abortion.”

Reminder: Vance has previously backed a national abortion ban AND criticized exceptions for rape or incest, calling those circumstances “inconvenient.”

Manu Raju, CNN: “J.D. Vance, the Ohio GOP senator, says Republicans need to shift their approach on abortion and begin to embrace federal legislation … ‘We can’t give into the idea that the federal Congress has no role in this matter,’ he told us.”

Newsweek: “J.D. Vance Backs ‘National Standard’ for Abortions.”

Washington Post: “Ohio Senate candidate J.D. Vance argues against need for rape and incest exceptions in abortion laws”

Daily Beast: “J.D. Vance suggested he would support prohibiting abortion even in cases of rape and incest—and dismissed those catalysts as ‘inconvenient.’”

The Hill: “[Vance] campaigned against Ohio’s 2023 ballot measure that guaranteed the right to abortion, and previously said he’d vote for a nationwide abortion ban at 15 weeks…

“‘Two wrongs don’t make a right,’ he said in 2021 when asked whether abortion laws should allow for exceptions for rape and incest.” 

Associated Press: “Vance said that he would vote for the national abortion ban at 15 weeks introduced by Republican U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham … He did not explicitly say he supports a rape exception … He said the issue is too complex for him to name all the exceptions he might support on a debate stage.”

The Faith and Freedom Coalition is made up of anti-choice MAGA loyalists, including president and founder Ralph Reed, and has ties to anti-choice extremists and conspiracy theorists like Alveda King and John Hagee.

Faith and Freedom Coalition: “Ralph Reed is the founder and chairman of the Faith & Freedom Coalition, which he formed in 2009 to serve as a bridge between evangelical voters and the growing Tea Party movement.”

CNN: “Anti-abortion groups to Trump: Don’t water down GOP platform by removing support for federal ban”

“The sentiment was echoed last week by Ralph Reed, chairman of the Faith and Freedom Coalition and a close ally of the former president. Speaking during a virtual event hosted by the Washington Post, Reed publicly urged the Trump campaign ‘to proceed with great caution in sending any message of vacillation or retreat when it comes to the defense of the innocent unborn.’”

Ralph Reed: “Now, just to be clear, our organization supports any pro-life law that will save any unborn child at any level of government—local, state, or federal. We would not only support the 20-week pain-capable bill, we would support a 15-week pain-capable bill. We would support a 12-week after the first trimester or a heartbeat bill or even a total ban. I mean, we’re a pro-life organization.”

Alveda King: “‘A great victory for life was won last month as Roe v Wade was overturned, BUT President Biden and liberals in Congress are focused on expanding the death-care known as abortion. We must pray and we must act to save our unborn!” 

Alveda King: “No numbers games, reverse abortion! Babies aren’t political footballs We’re dealing with human lives one blood/one race, human dignity Remember Trump’s appointments of judges and justices helped bring down Roe v Wade Nothing’s changed. Pres. Trump is still for life. 🙏🏽4myfriend.”

US News & World Report: Hagee endorsed Sen. John McCain in the 2008 presidential election, but McCain publicly renounced the endorsement after a previous sermon of Hagee’s came to light in which Hagee appeared to assert that Adolf Hitler was half-Jewish and was sent by God to drive Jews to Israel. Hagee suggested that it was Jews’ ‘disobedience’ of God that ‘gave rise’ to their persecution.”

Media Matters: “Earlier in the [the September 18, 2006 edition of National Public Radio’s Fresh Air host Terry] Gross had asked [Christians United For Israel Founder and National Chairman] Hagee if he believed that ‘all Muslims have a mandate to kill Christians and Jews.’ Hagee replied: ‘Well, the Quran teaches that. Yes, it teaches that very clearly.’”

Media Matters: “In What Every Man Wants in a Woman, Hagee wrote: ‘…[Same-sex marriage] will open the door to incest, to polygamy, and every conceivable marriage arrangement demented minds can possibly conceive. If God does not then punish America, He will have to apologize to Sodom and Gomorrah.’ He also wrote: ‘It is impossible to call yourself a Christian and defend homosexuality. There is no justification or acceptance of homosexuality,’ and ‘Homosexuality means the death of society because homosexuals can recruit, but they cannot reproduce’ (Pages 68-69).

MSNBC: “It wasn’t long before McCain was asked whether he agreed with Hagee’s record of radicalism, including the pastor’s claims that the Holocaust was a divine plan from God, Hurricane Katrina was God’s punishment for Pride parades in New Orleans, and women are ‘only meant to be mothers and bear children.’”

Vance — who compared abortion to slavery — celebrated when Donald Trump overturned Roe v. Wade and voted to block legislation codifying abortion access protections.

Vice: “JD Vance Compared Abortion to Slavery”

JD Vance: “I think that what I really think on – so first of all the Dobbs decision, everybody knows, overruled Roe v. Wade – I think that was the right decision.”

NBC News: “Senate Republicans block Democratic bill codifying Roe v. Wade abortion protections”

“Senate Republicans on Wednesday blocked legislation led by Democrats to revive the protections of Roe v. Wade in the wake of the Supreme Court eliminating the nationwide right to abortion.”

Republicans who voted against include: JD Vance.

The Trump-Vance ticket is in lockstep in their agenda to rip away reproductive freedoms — Vance said it himself.

Sean Hannity, Fox News: “So you completely agree, are in full, complete agreement with President Trump?”

JD Vance: “My view is that Donald Trump is the leader of the Republican Party and his views on abortion are going to be the views that dominate this party and drive this party forward.”