(LifeSiteNews) — GOP U.S. Sen. JD Vance of Ohio surprised political observers this weekend after insinuating that if Donald Trump wins this year’s presidential race federal funding for abortion will be brought to an end.
“On the question of defunding Planned Parenthood, look, I mean our view is we don’t think that taxpayers should fund late-term abortions,” Vance told reporters Saturday after Trump’s massive rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.
“That has been a consistent view of the Trump campaign the first time around. It will remain a consistent view.”
Vance’s remarks have prompted both pro-lifers and pro-abortion groups to speak out.
“I was thrilled by what Senator Vance said,” Mary Szoch of the Family Research Council told Washington Watch, the group’s podcast. “I’m hopeful that that means they’re committed to defunding Planned Parenthood completely.”
Planned Parenthood receives roughly $592 million from U.S. taxpayers in the form of Medicaid reimbursements, government grants, and other programs each year. It performs on average more than 365,000 abortions annually, according to the Charlotte Lozier Institute, with less than 1% of them being “late-term abortions” at 21 weeks or later during pregnancy.
While in office, Trump signed off on the “Protect Life Rule” for Title X funding, which prohibited federal dollars from going to Planned Parenthood. However, the measure was overturned by Joe Biden in 2021.
Trump also upheld the Hyde Amendment and restored the Mexico City Policy, which prohibit Medicaid and U.S. foreign aid money from being used for abortions, respectively. A bill seeking to defund Planned Parenthood was proposed during the first Trump term but never made its way through Congress. He has not campaigned on defunding Planned Parenthood at all this election season.
Pro-abortion groups pounced on Vance’s remarks.
“JD Vance forget to stick to the script, admits he and Donald Trump will defund Planned Parenthood in a second term,” a headline from a Vanity Fair article read.
Vance’s “chilling” remarks “fly in the face of how other Republicans, including Trump, have tried to present more moderate views on abortion,” a story for The New Republicsays.
Vance exposed Kamala Harris running mate Tim Walz during their first and only debate last week. Vance brought up how Walz signed legislation that guarantees a “fundamental right” to effectively unlimited abortion. He also explained that Walz approved an omnibus bill that repealed most of Minnesota’s born-alive protections for babies that survive abortion attempts.
“That is fundamentally barbaric. Do you want to force Catholic hospitals to perform abortions against their will?” Vance asked.
Vance accurately points out that Tim Walz repealed Minnesota's requirement that measures be taken to preserve the “life and health” of a baby who survives an abortion, replacing it with a nebulous requirement for “care.”
— Mary Margaret Olohan (@MaryMargOlohan) October 2, 2024
Vance: "That is fundamentally barbaric." pic.twitter.com/KukWZS2lRL
It will be interesting to see how the Trump campaign responds to Vance’s comment, as Trump announced during the vice-presidential debate via social media that he would veto a federal abortion ban because abortion is now “up to the states.”
His wife, Melania, has also come out in favor of women having the right to abort their unborn child. In a recent Fox News interview, she said that her husband “knew my position and my beliefs since the day we met” in 1998.