Fox News Anchors Press J.D. Vance Three Times To Explain What He Thinks Are ‘Reasonable Exceptions’ to Abortion Bans
Republican nominee for U.S. Senate in Ohio, J.D. Vance, appeared on Fox News Wednesday and was pushed repeatedly to lay out what he believes are “reasonable exceptions” to potential national or local abortion bans.
The conversation began with Fox News anchors discussing recent polling data in Vance’s race against Rep. Tim Ryan (D-OH), which is surprisingly close in the now reliably red state.
“Siena has got him up 54/38% in women, got him up 52/39% in women in the Marist poll. You have a big advantage among male voters, 55 to 37 in Siena, 54 to 39 in Marist. A lot of people say that divide is being driven by abortion,” noted anchor John Roberts.
“And we do know that you are in support of Lindsey Graham‘s 15-week ban on abortion. But where do you come down on the issue of exceptions to that? You know, in the case of rape, incest, or other particular exceptions,” Roberts asked.
“Yeah. John, So I’m very pro-life and not ashamed of it. Of course, you have to have some reasonable exceptions here, but I just want to save as many lives as possible,” Vance answered, bringing up the notion of “reasonable exceptions.”
“So, what’s reasonable for you?” Roberts tried to interject as Vance continued:
I think that’s the goal of a pro-life policy is making it easier for young moms to afford health care. Make it easier for people to afford, you know, afford adoption services if they need to. But I actually don’t buy, John, that we’re way behind with women voters.
I think there’s a really, really big groundswell of women voters who are really angry about inflation, really angry about crime, especially in our big cities in the state of Ohio. And I think because of that, we’re going to do very, very well with women voters, with men voters, with everybody come Election Day.
“Yeah, I’m sorry. Let me just drill down on that. You said reasonable exceptions. What exceptions are reasonable to you?” Roberts followed up.
“Well, look, I think it’s always hard to say every single possible exception. My goal, like I said, John, is to save as many lives as possible, to try to protect as many unborn babies as possible,” Vance replied, adding:
I do think that different states are going to handle the situation a little bit differently. That’s why I kind of like Lindsey Graham’s approach, because it sets a minimum national standard while giving the states a big amount of room to negotiate and figure out their individual abortion policies.
I think that’s the right approach, especially now when we’re still trying to figure out what the world looks like in this post Roe versus Wade world. But but but but look, I’m pro-life and I’m not ashamed of it. I think there are a lot of voters, male and female, who just feel like I do, that they want us to be a pro-family, a pro-child, a pro-baby state. And I think that’s where we’re headed.
“I’m going to move on. But one last chance for voters to hear what those exceptions might be,” asked anchor Sandra Smith, giving Vance a third chance to answer the question.
“Look guys,” Vance responded after a pause. “I think that, I like I said, one obvious exception, of course, is you got to make sure that, you know, you have life of the mother protected,” Vance added offering one exception he would support.
“There are other exceptions as well. My view is we want to save as many lives as possible,” Vance concluded, dodging on laying out a full policy a third time.
“All right. I want to move on to Tim Ryan this morning and what he said about you, JD. Let’s listen,” said Smith moving the interview on.
Watch the full clip above via Fox News.
