3 prominent Republicans advocating for GOP to take softer stance on abortion

By Samantha Kamman, Christian Post Reporter Wednesday, July 10, 2024

JD Vance

Ohio Senator and vice presidential hopeful J.D. Vance said during a Sunday interview with NBC’s "Meet the Press" that he agreed with Donald Trump about the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent decision regarding the abortion pill.

“On the question of the abortion pill, the Supreme Court made a decision in saying that the American people should have access to that medication. Donald Trump has supported that opinion; I support that opinion,” Vance said.

The Republican lawmaker’s comments about the abortion pill were in response to a question from "Meet the Press" host Kristen Welker about The Heritage Foundation’s Project 25. The think-tank’s initiative is intended to serve as a guide for a conservative administration. The Trump campaign said Friday that the presumptive Republican nominee for president has nothing to do with Project 25.

Project 25’s Mandate for Leadership: The Conservative Promise states, “Abortion pills pose the single greatest threat to unborn children in a post-Roe world.” The document asserts that due to the overturning of Roe v. Wade in June 2022, the Food and Drug Administration is ethically and legally obliged to revisit and withdraw its initial approval.”

“The Heritage Foundation does a lot of good work. It does a lot of things that I disagree with, a lot of things that I agree with,” Vance said during the Sunday interview. “I guarantee there are things that Trump likes and dislikes about that 900-page document. But he is the person who will determine the agenda into the next administration.”

In 2021, Vance addressed Texas’ ban on abortions after a baby’s heartbeat becomes detectable, usually at six weeks gestation, during an interview with Spectrum News. The Ohio senator asserted that the Democrat Party’s view that preborn children are not entitled to legal protections is “wrong.”

When asked if he supports exceptions in cases of rape or incest, Vance said, “Two wrongs don’t make a right,” and questioned whether people want to live in a society that looks at preborn babies as “inconveniences to be discarded.”

“My view on this has been very clear, and I think the question betrays a certain presumption that is wrong,” he said. “It’s not whether a woman should be forced to bring a child to term” but “whether a child should be allowed to live even though the circumstances of that child’s birth are somehow inconvenient or a problem to society.”

“We want women to have opportunities, we want women to have choices,” he continued, “but above all, we want women and young boys in the womb to have the right to life.”

Vance began to call on Republicans to take a different approach to abortion after Ohio approved a ballot measure in November 2023 to amend the state's constitution and make abortion a constitutional right. Last December, Vance told CNN that the Republican Party needs to accept that people do not want “blanket abortion bans.”

“They just don’t. I say this as a person who wants to protect as many unborn babies as possible,” Vance said. “We have to provide exceptions for the life of the mother, for rape, and so forth. That is just a basic necessity.”