Ohio Senator J.D. VanceRepublican vice presidential nominee says he is “absolutely committed” to not enacting a federal ban on abortion, two years after he said he wanted “Abortion will be declared illegal throughout the country.”
During an appearance on NBC's Meet the Press On Sunday, Vance vouched for former President Donald Trump, telling moderator Kristen Welker that he believed Trump would veto a federal abortion ban if he were elected president in the fall.
“I think he would have done that,” Vance told Welker. after she pressed him about his party's efforts to push through a bill that would restrict access to abortion nationwide. “He clearly said he would do it.”
“And to be clear, Donald Trump, I think, has made his position very clear. He wants this to be a state decision. States will make that decision themselves,” he added after Welker noted that Democrats have warned that a second Trump term would lead to a national ban on abortion.
Vance doubled down on the hypothetical bill, saying the GOP does not want “continuous federal conflict on this issue.”
Senator. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) also appeared on Meet the Press and criticized Vance's comments that Trump would repeal the federal abortion ban if elected.
“American women are not stupid, and we are not going to trust the future of our daughters and granddaughters to two men who have openly bragged about blocking abortion access for women across the country,” Warren said.
Back in March, Trump said he would support a nationwide ban on abortions at around 15 weeks of pregnancy, except in cases of rape, incest, and threats to the mother's life.
“People are now agreeing that it's 15 weeks, and I think along those lines, and it will come out to something very reasonable,” he said on WABC's “Sid and Friends in the Morning.” “But people actually – even hardliners – agree, 15 weeks seems to be the number people agree on.”
Then, in April, he updated his positionarguing that states should make their own abortion laws.