MILWAUKEE — President Trump has spent months trying to put the issue of abortion behind him, saying it belongs to the states and the federal government has no say. In choosing Senator Vance as his running mate, though, all of that work may have been for nothing. Mr. Vance’s views on abortion were quickly seized on by Democrats.

Since the Dobbs decision and the ensuing midterms disaster for Republicans in 2022, Trump has repeatedly tried to distance himself from his anti-abortion rights position and his role — by appointing three Supreme Court justices — in overturning Roe v. Wade. 

In April 2024, Trump announced that abortion restrictions should be solely left up to the states. “Whatever they decide must be the law of the land. In this case, the law of the state,” Trump said in a video posted to Truth Social. 

The abortion issue became even more pivotal to 2024 when two state supreme court decisions forced Trump to clarify his position further. In Arizona, the state was on track to enforce an 1864 total abortion ban and in Alabama, the court declared embryos were in fact human beings, meaning in vitro fertilization would be outlawed. Trump quickly came out against both court decisions. 

Trump’s attempts to distance himself from what some have described as draconian abortion restrictions in several red states may all be for naught now that he had made the senator from Ohio his running mate. 

Mr. Vance burst onto the national spotlight in 2016 with his bestselling memoir, “Hillbilly Elegy”, which was later turned into a movie by the same name. In it, he details the maladies of Appalachia from a conservative perspective, arguing that the moral center of America has been hollowed out, leaving communities like his native southeastern Ohio behind. 

He rapidly spun that book into political influence, where he was sought out as a voice by the mainstream media for “forgotten America.” When he decided to run for the Senate in Ohio two years ago, he won the endorsement of Trump and faced off against a popular Democrat. 

During a debate with his opponent, Mr. Vance made it clear that he would not take Trump’s stance of letting states do whatever they want. He said “some minimum national standard” would have to be implemented at the federal level for abortion restrictions. Mr. Vance proposed 15 weeks. 

Mr. Vance’s campaign website stated that he believes” abortion has turned our society into a place where we see children as an inconvenience to be thrown away rather than a blessing to be nurtured.” He made no mention of a national ban in his policy platform, but the section of the website was entitled: “End Abortion.”

As part of his more populist bona fides, he proposed an expanded child tax credit, increasing the number of adoptions, and protecting young families from surprise medical bills. 

Earlier in the 2022 campaign, he told Spectrum News that he likely would not support any kind of exception for rape or incest, saying “two wrongs don’t make a right.”

“It’s not whether a woman should be forced to bring a child to term, it’s whether a child should be allowed to live, even though the circumstances of that child’s birth are somehow inconvenient or a problem to the society,” Mr. Vance said.

“The question to me is really about the baby,” the then-candidate added. “We want women to have opportunities, we want women to have choices, but, above all, we want women and young boys in the womb to have a right to life.” In one interview, he likened abortion to slavery. 

Mr. Vance’s comments were quickly seized upon by Democrats and pro-abortion rights groups, who are trying to revitalize the fledgling Biden campaign. 

In a video posted shortly after Mr. Vance was declared the vice presidential pick, the Biden–Harris campaign shared the audio of Mr. Vance comparing abortion to slavery.

Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley — a Democrat from Massachusetts and a member of the so-called “Squad” — shared the quote of Mr. Vance saying he would not be opposed to banning abortion even in the cases of rape or incest. “JD Vance has told us who he is. Believe him,” Ms. Pressley wrote. 

One Republican delegate from Pennsylvania attending the national convention this week, Ambassador Carla Sands, who served under Trump, says she is not concerned about Mr. Vance’s stances on abortion. 

“Trump’s the presidential candidate. He has said that the abortion issue has gone back to the states. He was right,” Ms. Sands said. “So, if [Mr. Vance] is part of the Trump team, he’s going to get on board with the agenda.”

Outside spending groups are also hitting Mr. Vance hard for his past statements and his voting record. Reproductive Freedom for All, a liberal pro-abortion rights group, says in choosing Mr. Vance, the former president is proving that he “will stop at nothing to ban all abortion.”

“A Trump-Vance administration will be the most dangerous administration for abortion and reproductive freedom in this country’s history,” the group wrote.

Democrats had hoped that abortion would be a major issue in the campaign, but polling suggests the economy, immigration, crime, and President Biden’s apparent unfitness to do the job have taken over.

According to a YouGov poll from June, independents ranked inflation and the cost of healthcare as their most important issues, while just five percent said abortion was top-of-mind for them this year. 

Neither a Trump campaign spokesman nor a spokesman for Mr. Vance responded to requests for comment.