Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, showed so little concern for women suffering under abortion restrictions in a Thursday interview with Joe Rogan that the podcaster was forced to push back and correct him multiple times. Throughout the three-hour interview, Rogan asked the GOP vice presidential candidate to clarify his views on abortion, citing bans across the country and the prosecution of women who travel out-of-state to get an abortion where it is legal.
“That’s concerning to me, if there’s a place in the country where it’s legal to have a medical procedure and you live in a state where it’s not legal that your state can decide what you can and can’t do with your body, which is essentially based on a religious idea,” Rogan said.
Vance, who had once called for a national abortion ban, claimed to be unaware of such laws. “I don’t like the idea, to be clear. I’ve not heard of this, maybe as like a possibility, but not as something that actually exists in the law, but I’ve not heard of somebody being arrested, and I don’t like the idea of arresting people for moving about the country,” Vance responded.
GOP-led local governments have taken up the lead in passing travel bans, while conservative lawyers and politicians are using existing state laws to go after those seeking to escape restrictions. Even when pregnant people can make the journey, it is a process fraught with risk and danger. The dam against anti-abortion measures broke when the the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, which former President Donald Trump bragged about and Rogan said enabled “religious men who are trying to dictate what women can or cannot do with their bodies.”
“I understand the pushback against that, but I think you can go, like with so many other issues, you can go way too far about it, and it becomes trying to celebrate” abortion, Vance said, dismissing the idea of terminating a pregnancy as a difficult medical choice. “At the very best, if you grant I think every argument of the pro-choice side, it is a neutral thing, not something to be celebrated.”
“I think there’s very few people who are celebrating, though,” Rogan replied.
Vance, seeming eager to maintain the civil tenor of the interview, suddenly agreed, claiming that social media was creating that impression. But by the end of the interview, he had still not disavowed his position that abortion is akin to slavery or that he and Trump will end federal funding for Planned Parenthood.
