JD Vance Claimed In The Debate He Never Supported A National Abortion Ban — But He Did

Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio) did his best to sanitize his party’s extreme anti-abortion record during Tuesday night’s vice presidential debate.

Vance reiterated Donald Trump’s position that abortion rights should be left to the states, but when fact-checked on his own past comments on reproductive rights, Vance either evaded or downright lied about his record.

“I never supported a national ban,” Vance said when CBS News moderators asked about his past comments supporting a federal abortion ban. “I did, when I was running for Senate in 2022, talk about setting some minimum national standard.”

Vance, who has continually said he wants women to have more children , supported a national abortion ban in 2022, saying he would “certainly” like for “abortion to be illegal nationally.” He also called for federal restrictions on traveling for abortion care and conjured an absurd fictional scenario where George Soros fills up airplanes with Black pregnant women from Ohio and flies them to California so they can get abortions.

During the debate, the Republican vice presidential candidate also emphasized that his party needs to do a better job at earning back the trust of the American people when it comes to issues of reproductive rights — a vague suggestion that he knows abortion is a weak issue for Republicans.

“We’ve got to do a better job at winning back people’s trust,” Vance said. “So many young women would love to have families. So many young women also see an unplanned pregnancy as something that’s going to destroy their livelihood, destroy their education, destroy their relationships. And we’ve got to earn people’s trust back. And that’s why Donald Trump and I are so committed to pursuing pro-family policies.”

Vance said he