Republicans Keep Trying to Rebrand a Federal Abortion Ban

At the vice presidential debate Tuesday night, JD Vance lied that he “never supported a national abortion ban” but supported “some minimum national standard.” They’re the exact same thing.

By Kylie Cheung  |  October 2, 2024 | 2:59pm
Photo: Getty Images AbortionPolitics 2024 Election
Republicans Keep Trying to Rebrand a Federal Abortion Ban

JD Vance’s performance at Tuesday night’s vice presidential debate can be best summarized by the moment he told the moderators, “The rules were that you guys weren’t going to fact check,” when CBS’ Margaret Brennan pointed out there are no mythical, cat-eating, “illegal Haitian migrants” in Ohio. Vance protested Brennan’s fact-check because he came to the debate to lie—which he easily did all night.

Confronted about his anti-abortion record, Vance lied that he “never supported a national abortion ban” and only supported “some minimum national standard.” These are the exact same thing. Whether it’s a six-week, 15-week, or 20-week “minimum national standard,” that’s a ban on whether and when people can access a medical service.

This is the same line Vance used on Meet the Press in September, when he argued that Sen. Lindsey Graham’s (R-S.C.) proposed 15-week abortion ban wasn’t a “ban” but “a federal minimum standard.” The impact—being forced to remain pregnant, unable to receive a basic health service, sometimes for medical emergencies—is the same, whatever you call it. It’s also the same line Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) used during the Missouri Senate debate in September: “I don’t support a nationwide ban. I do support reasonable federal restrictions—limits on abortion, like partial-birth abortion, like when the baby is capable of feeling pain.” Of course, there’s no science on any of the stigmatizing, inaccurate spin Hawley provides, and what he’s describing—“reasonable federal restrictions”—is an abortion ban. Period. 

Similarly, Trump has insisted that he’s a moderate on abortion because he supports leaving abortion up to the states—the position that’s allowed about half of the country to ban abortion and upend the medical system.

Republicans know abortion bans are unpopular. And they know abortion bans have become accurately associated with causing horrific medical emergencies. In September, the first confirmed, abortion ban-induced maternal deaths, both due to Georgia’s six-week ban, were disclosed by the state’s maternal mortality committee. Vance, Hawley, former President Trump, and all the other Republicans trying to distance themselves from their anti-abortion records in order to win back voters are now simply renaming their policies.

Rebranding is officially the GOP’s new abortion strategy. And, as Abortion, Every Day’s Jessica Valenti observed on Twitter Wednesday morning, mainstream media outlets are enabling that strategy. (Valenti unpacks the language around abortion bans more extensively in her new book Abortion, out this week.)

During the debate, after Vance answered the question about his abortion record, Trump posted to Truth Social that “EVERYONE KNOWS I WOULD NOT SUPPORT A FEDERAL ABORTION BAN, UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES, AND WOULD, IN FACT, VETO IT.” Valenti shared a screenshot of headlines from Politico, the Wall Street Journal, CNN, and CBS News, all taking Trump at his word that he’d veto a national abortion ban. Maybe he would veto something labeled a “national abortion ban,” but he didn’t say he’d veto anything labeled a “minimum national standard” or “reasonable federal restriction.” He’d clearly sign either of those. Additionally, as his advisers’ Project 2025 has detailed, he could easily bypass Congress to ban abortion through the archaic Comstock Act. This irresponsible, uncritical media coverage is similar to what we saw in July, when the Republican Party released their official 2024 platform and didn’t explicitly call for a national ban—but called for fetal personhood. These same outlets framed that omission as the GOP “softening” its extreme position on abortion.

The devastating impact of abortion bans is the same no matter what you call them.

None of this is complicated—least of all for Vance, who’s spoken pretty unambiguously about where he stands on abortion bans for years: In 2022, while running for U.S. Senate, Vance said on the far-right Very Fine People podcast that he “certainly would like abortion to be illegal nationally.” In 2021, Vance argued that if the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, “Black women” in Ohio would be able to travel to California for abortions, and a national ban would be necessary to stop this interstate abortion travel. That same year, he rejected rape and incest exceptions for abortion bans, telling Spectrum News, “Two wrongs don’t make a right.” As recently as 2023, he signed a letter asserting that law enforcement has a right to access traveling abortion patients’ medical data to enforce abortion bans, trapping them under their states’ laws and effectively enforcing a federal ban.

So, sure, maybe the CBS debate’s rules were, as Vance put it, “that you guys weren’t going to fact check”—but here at Jezebel, we’re more than happy to do so!

 
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