GOP vice presidential candidate Sen. J.D. Vance of Ohio slammed Democratic Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear for seeming to suggest he wanted a member of the Republican’s family to be raped.
Appearing on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” on Tuesday, Beshear criticized state laws that limit access to abortion, as he had done during the first day of the Democratic National Convention in Chicago the night before.
“I mean think about what some people have had to go through because of these laws. J.D. Vance calls pregnancy resulting from rape inconvenient. Inconvenience is traffic. Make him go through this,” the governor casually told MSNBC.
Vance responded on X, “What the hell is this? Why is [Gov. Andy Beshear] wishing that a member of my family would get raped?!? What a disgusting person.”
What the hell is this?
Why is @AndyBeshearKY wishing that a member of my family would get raped?!?
What a disgusting person. https://t.co/11Kp1h92MN
— JD Vance (@JDVance) August 20, 2024
The National Desk reported that Beshear was likely referring to an 2021 interview Vance gave as a Senate candidate during which he said regarding rape and incest exceptions to abortion bans, “I think that two wrongs don’t make a right. At the end of the day we’re talking about an unborn baby.”
“What kind of society do we want to have? A society that looks at inconveniences to be discarded?” he added.
Asked if a women should be forced to carry a baby to term after being the victim of incest or rape, Vance said, “My view on this has been very clear and I think the question betrays a certain presumption that is wrong.”
Should Andy Beshear resign?
Yes: 98% (220 Votes)
No: 2% (4 Votes)
“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. The question really, to me, is about the baby,” he argued. “We want women and young boys in the womb to have the right to life.”
Former President Donald Trump has taken the position that abortion policy should be set by states in the aftermath of the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2022 Dobbs’ decision.
Vance addressed the issue of abortion at a campaign event in Philadelphia on Monday saying, “What President Trump has said has been very direct.”
“He said, ‘Look Pennsylvania is going to want to have a different abortion policy from Ohio, which is going to want to have a different position from California. Let the states decide. Let the people in those states decide,’” the senator recounted.
State laws that place restrictions on abortion have mostly set a time limit during which pregnant women can seek abortions (between 6 and 18 weeks) and allowed exceptions to protect the life of the mother later in the term.
Beshear went back on MSNBC later Tuesday accusing Vance of deflection concerning the governor’s earlier “Morning Joe” remarks.
“It’s ridiculous, but it’s also deflection. I mean, J.D. Vance knows that he and Donald Trump are so wrong on this issue, and so he’s trying to make himself the victim,” Beshear said.
“Obviously, I would never wish harm on anyone,” he added.
