JD Vance’s MAGA Hot Mic: Vance Wants to Crack Down on Access to Medication Abortion
July 25, 2024
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As JD Vance continues to push his anti-choice extremism that includes pushing the Justice Department to restrict access to medication abortion, DNC Spokesperson Aida Ross released the following statement:
“After pushing the Department of Justice to crack down on medication abortion access and prosecute doctors with his fellow anti-choice MAGA extremists, JD Vance is now running with Trump to enact a dangerous Project 2025 agenda that would ban abortion nationwide – with or without Congress – and threaten access to other reproductive care, from IVF to birth control. Women’s basic rights are on the line this November, and voters will stop the Trump-Vance ticket’s all-out assault on our fundamental freedoms.”
ON THE RECORD: Anti-choice extremist JD Vance pushed the Justice Department to restrict access to medication abortion — in line with the Trump-Vance Project 2025 agenda.
Washington Post: “Vance urged DOJ to enforce Comstock Act, crack down on abortion pills”
“‘We demand that you act swiftly and in accordance with the law, shut down all mail-order abortion operations,’ Vance and about 40 fellow Republican lawmakers wrote. The Republicans called on the Justice Department to potentially prosecute physicians, pharmacists and others ‘who break the Federal mail-order abortion laws,’ citing additional federal laws that apply to criminal conspiracy and money laundering…
“Antiabortion advocates first moved to revive the Comstock Act after Roe v. Wade was overturned two years ago — arguing that without the constitutional right to abortion, the long-dormant act now makes it illegal for anyone to mail abortion pills, even in states where abortion remains legal. The law has been referenced by ‘Project 2025,’ the conservative-backed alliance that has created a policy road map for a future Republican president. The Project 2025 document was released after the letter from Vance and other GOP senators was sent. According to Project 2025’s blueprint, the Justice Department should ‘enforce federal law’ against providers and distributors of abortion pills.
“Roger Severino, vice president of domestic policy at the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank that helped organize Project 2025, praised Vance’s positions on abortion and said the letter aligns with their proposals.”
New Republic: “On January 20, 2025, conservatives plan to resurrect a 150-year-old defunct law to ban abortion across the nation. This is not a secret plan—far from it. It’s part of the 180-Day Playbook produced by Project 2025, detailing priorities for an incoming conservative president on day one…
“The playbook says the president should enforce a 150-year-old law, the Comstock Act, which right-wing groups see as a way to ban abortion nationally because it outlaws the use of the mail for the purposes of sending or receiving any object that could be used for an abortion.”
Vance’s anti-choice record also includes comparing abortion to slavery, saying he’d like “abortion to be illegal nationally,” attacking exceptions for rape and incest, and more.
Vance: “There’s something comparable between abortion and slavery, and that while the people who obviously suffer the most are those subjected to it, I think it has this morally distorting effect on the entire society.”
Vice: “JD Vance Compared Abortion to Slavery”
CNN: “JD Vance said in 2022 he ‘would like abortion to be illegal nationally’”
“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.”
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.’”
Vance: “Ohio has a heartbeat bill [banning abortion before many women know they’re pregnant], I think that’s a good bill.”
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.”
ProPublica: “[Vance] argued that conservatives needed to take action against corporations that, say, defended abortion rights or punished employees who spoke out against abortion access. ‘If we’re unwilling to make companies that are taking the side of the left in the culture wars feel real economic pain, then we’re not serious about winning the culture war,’ he said.”
NBC News: “Senate Republicans block Democratic bill codifying Roe v. Wade abortion protections”
Republicans who voted against include: JD Vance.
Vance has spoken out against and voted to block legislation to protect IVF access.
The Hill: “Senate Republicans block legislation to codify IVF access”
Republicans who voted against include: JD Vance.
Vanity Fair: “On Wednesday, Senate Republicans are expected to object to Tammy Duckworth’s Right to Build Families Act, because, surprise: They don’t actually care about families and aren’t ‘pro-life.’
“‘It’s idiotic for us to take the bait,’ Senator JD Vance told Politico, as though the measure were some kind of political trap. (He also noted that he had not actually read the bill yet.)”
Vance has deep ties to the extremists that produced the Project 2025 blueprint and has praised it as including “good ideas.”
Vance: “I’ve reviewed a lot of [Project 2025]. There are some good ideas in there.”
New Republic: “Project 2025 Leader Is Overjoyed by Trump’s Vice Presidential Pick”
Nick Corasaniti, New York Times: “[Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts] reacted to the news [of Vance’s VP selection] ‘with a broad smile on my face’ and said that ‘privately, we were really rooting for him.’”
Gram Slattery, Reuters: “Vance is very close to Heritage and even wrote the forward for a book from the think tank’s president. Project 2025 is of course organized by Heritage.”
Vox: “Kevin Roberts, the president of the right-wing Heritage Foundation and the driving force behind Project 2025, told Ward that ‘[Vance] is absolutely going to be one of the leaders — if not the leader — of our movement.’”
Vance: “I want to thank especially Kevin Roberts and all the Heritage Foundation for 50 years of incredible work on conservative policy.”
Vance: “I think that what Trump should do, like if I was giving him one piece of advice, is fire every single civil servant… replace them with our people.”
Politico: “The résumés of Vance’s senior staffers read like a phone book for the New Right ecosystem in Washington: the Claremont Institute, American Compass, the Conservative Partnership Institute, Hillsdale College.”
Politico: Project 2025 author and RNC Platform Committee Policy Director Russ Vought is a “close ally of Vance.”
When it comes to ripping away reproductive freedoms, Vance is in lockstep with Trump.
Sean Hannity, Fox News: “So you completely agree, are in full, complete agreement with President Trump?”
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.”