Vance Claims to Be “Pro-Family” But Votes Against IVF
GOP Vice Presidential candidate J.D. Vance has come under fire once again for voicing positions that attack Americans who are childless. All the while, as a, U.S. Senator, Vance has worked to make it harder for couples to start families of their own.
Families should be cherished. Children should be protected and valued. These beliefs are at the heart of faith and life for countless Americans. The decision - and ability - to start a family is deeply personal. It encompasses so much hope, promise, and joy, but also heartache, grief, and loss. Everyone’s story of starting a family is unique and should be honored.
In a series of speeches and interviews over the last half decade, VP candidate JD Vance has mocked and criticized Americans for not having children. But he didn’t stop at mere mocking. He went on to argue that people who aren’t parents should have less of a vote and say in our democracy and society.
In a 2021 speech, Vance said, “When you go to the polls in this country as a parent, you should have more power, you should have more of an ability to speak your voice in our democratic republic than people who don’t have kids.”
"The fact that we're not having enough babies, the fact that we're not having enough children, is a crisis in this country," Vance asserted in the same speech.
Vance is one of 52 Senators, including 47 Republicans, who killed the Right to IVF Act in the Senate. The bill was introduced in response to growing threats to IVF access across the country, including from the Alabama Supreme Court and the Southern Baptist Convention, the largest Protestant denomination in the country.
One in ten Americans struggle with infertility while trying to conceive and 10-20% of all pregnancies end in miscarriage. As many as, 42% of adults in the country have used fertility treatments or know someone who has.
For many couples, IVF has been the miracle that has finally allowed them to have children. It is hard to understand how a “pro-family” candidate and party could be against protecting access to such treatment.
A central argument for Vance is that unless someone directly parents a child, they have less of a stake in the future of the country. His position seems to discount the commitment to the next generation of aunts, uncles, and cousins, godparents and chosen family, mentors and teachers, and so many others, not to mention those who have dedicated their lives to self-sacrificial service, including nuns and priests in his own Catholic faith.
In an interview with Tucker Carlson, Vance said, “how does it make sense that we’ve turned our country over to people who don’t really have a direct stake in it?”
Among others, he specifically cited, Kamala Harris, who co-parented her stepchildren for over a decade and is known to them as “Momala,” and Pete Buttigieg, who at the time was in the process of adopting twins.
Vance went on to say the country is being run by, “a bunch of childless cat ladies who are miserable at their own lives and the choices that they’ve made and so they want to make the rest of the country miserable, too.”
Vance’s comments resurfaced after he was nominated for Vice President on the GOP ticket. In an interview with Meghan Kelly, he defended his words as “obviously sarcastic” without commenting on the true misery and pain of countless American couples who have tried and failed to have children.
Women Across the Political Spectrum Respond & Share Their Stories
Meghan McCain, a Republican columnist and daughter of late Sen. John McCain, an Arizona Republican, sounded an alarm. “I have been trying to warn every conservative man I know — these JD comments are activating women across all sides, including my most conservative Trump supporting friends. “These comments have caused real pain and are just innately unchristian,” she said. “This is not who we are.”
Beverly Hallberg, a fellow with the conservative nonprofit Independent Women's Forum, replied to McCain's post. "I'm childless on earth, but I have a baby in heaven due to an ectopic pregnancy," Hallberg said. "Not all women who don't have children are childless by choice. It adds insult to injury, to put it mildly, when these comments are said."
Former U.S. Rep. Gabby Giffords, an Arizona Democrat, said, “Vice President [Kamala Harris] is a proud mom of two remarkable stepchildren — and so am I. [Sen. Mark Kelly] and I were trying to have a baby through IVF before I was shot and that dream was stolen from us. To suggest we are somehow lesser is disgraceful.”
“All I can say is… Mr. Vance, I pray that your daughter is fortunate enough to bear children of her own one day,” Jennifer Aniston wrote in an Instagram post. “I hope she will not need to turn to IVF as a second option. Because you are trying to take that away from her, too.”
“I was trying to get pregnant. It was a challenging road for me, the baby-making road,” Aniston said during an interview about her IVF journey, reflecting on her 30s and 40s. “All the years and years and years of speculation… It was really hard. I was going through IVF, drinking Chinese teas, you name it. I was throwing everything at it. I would’ve given anything if someone had said to me, ‘Freeze your eggs. Do yourself a favor.’ You just don’t think it. So here I am today. The ship has sailed.”
"People are childfree for many reasons -- from grieving the pain of miscarriage to experiencing failed adoptions or rounds of fertility treatments to making their own choice not to have children," said Barbara Collura, president and CEO of RESOLVE: The National Infertility Association.
"For some, living without children doesn't feel like a choice that they made, but a choice that they live with, despite trying to grow their families," Collura added. "Under no circumstances, should living childfree be weaponized in a way that degrades people or their value to society."