In response to JD Vance trying to cover for his record of backing a national abortion ban, DNC Spokesperson Aida Ross released the following statement:

“In another pathetic attempt to cover for his and Donald Trump’s deeply unpopular Project 2025 agenda to ban abortion nationwide, JD Vance is once again lying about his toxic anti-choice record. Vance’s words speak for themselves: he wants it to be ‘illegal nationally’ and even attacked exceptions for rape and incest, calling them ‘inconvenient’ circumstances. The American people see right through Vance’s lies, and will stop the Trump-Vance ticket’s assault on our basic freedoms at the ballot box.”

SHOT: JD Vance lied about his record of backing a national abortion ban.

Josh Sanders, CBS News Philadelphia: “You’re on record of wanting a national abortion ban.”

Vance: “No, no.” 

Sanders: “You’ve been on record.”

[…]

Sanders: “What do you tell women that would say that America is now a more dangerous place for them after the overturning of Roe v. Wade, what would be your message to those women?”

Vance: “Well first of all you just took a Democratic talking point and put words in my mouth.”

CHASER: Vance said he wants abortion to be “illegal nationally” and attacked exceptions for rape and incest, dismissing them as “inconvenient” circumstances.

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

“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.”

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

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, Donald Trump, and their Project 2025 allies are pushing a dangerous Project 2025 agenda that would ban abortion nationwide, threaten access to IVF and contraception, and rip away reproductive freedoms.

Rolling Stone: “Trump Wants to Ban Abortion Nationwide: Report”

Trump: “There of course remains a vital role for the federal government in protecting unborn life. And it’s very important.”

Trump: “There has to be some form of punishment [for women who have an abortion].”

Barbara Barr, WGAL: “There are ads running that say that you would support certain states with bans monitoring a woman’s pregnancy.”

Trump: “Well that would be up to the states, again. They will make a decision as to how they do it.”

Washington Post: “Vance urged DOJ to enforce Comstock Act, crack down on abortion pills”

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.” 

Politico: “Anti-abortion advocates worked for five decades to topple Roe v. Wade. They’re now laying the groundwork for a yearslong fight to curb in vitro fertilization.

“Since the Alabama Supreme Court ruled last month that frozen embryos are children, the Heritage Foundation and other conservative groups have been strategizing how to convince not just GOP officials but evangelicals broadly that they should have serious moral concerns about fertility treatments like IVF and that access to them should be curtailed.”

Media Matters: “The Heritage Foundation quietly released draconian new IVF policy recommendations for the next GOP president”

“Heritage has been a staunchly anti-IVF voice, supporting Alabama’s controversial Supreme Court ruling that frozen embryos cultivated through IVF treatment have the same rights as living children, and that a person can be held liable for destroying embryos.” 

The 19th: “RNC approves platform that would give rights to fetuses, endangering abortion, IVF” 

“Fetal personhood is widely seen as being in conflict with in vitro fertilization (IVF), which creates embryos outside of the uterus that are later implanted. Fetal personhood bestows the same rights currently reserved for people to embryos from the moment of fertilization.”

Reproductive Freedom for All: “The extensive mandate calls to gut reproductive freedom, including effectively banning medication abortion, ending access to emergency abortion care, attacking contraception, deploying fetal personhood, and undermining IVF in federal policy…

“Project 2025 includes personhood language and policies that propagate the belief that life begins at conception—which could have devastating impacts should it be put into law. This so-called “personhood” language could ban not only abortion but also some forms of birth control and assisted fertility treatments like IVF.”

The Nation: “Project 2025 Has Bad Medicine for HHS”

“And by declaring that life begins at conception, his manifesto appears to commit HHS to finding ways to outlaw IVF, which relies on generating multiple embryos, most of which are not implanted.”

Rolling Stone: “Inside the MAGA Plan to Attack Birth Control, Surveil Women and Ban the Abortion Pill”

Vance: “I’ve reviewed a lot of [Project 2025]. There are some good ideas in there.”

Axios: “[Project 2025] is undeniably a Trump-driven operation.”