Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance, the Republican vice presidential nominee, said he would “absolutely commit” not to enact a federal abortion ban, two years after saying he wanted to “make abortion illegal nationwide.”
Appearing on NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday, Vance told host Kristen Welker that she believes former President Donald Trump would veto a federal abortion ban if he were elected president in the fall.
“I think so,” Vance told Welker. After she pressed him on his party’s efforts to push legislation to restrict abortion access nationwide, “he made it clear that he would do that.”
“And let me be clear, Donald Trump has made his position clear and very clear: He wants this to be a state decision. The states will make their own decisions,” he added, after Welker noted that Democrats have warned that a second Trump term could lead to a nationwide abortion ban.
Vance doubled down on the hypothetical bill, arguing that Republicans don’t want “a constant federal conflict over this issue.”
Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Massachusetts) also appeared on “Meet the Press.” He criticized Vance’s comments that Trump would repeal federal abortion laws if elected.
“American women are not stupid,” Warren said. “And we will not entrust the future of our daughters and granddaughters to two men who have publicly bragged about blocking women’s access to abortion across the country.”
In March, President Trump announced that he would support legislation that would ban abortion nationwide after 15 weeks of pregnancy, with exceptions for cases of rape, incest, and end-of-life care.
“The number of weeks is what people are agreeing to right now, 15 weeks, and I’m considering that, and it would be a very reasonable outcome,” he said on WABC’s “Sid & Friends in the Morning.” “But it seems like people are really – even the hardliners are agreeing, and 15 weeks seems to be the number that people are agreeing to.”
And in April, he updated his position, saying states should decide their own abortion laws.
