Things That Matter, Desperately

Often, we use the language of games when we describe politics: match-ups and races, finish lines, Hail Mary passes, and front runners. But this time, the game is deadly serious, especially if you’re a woman, someone who loves or cares about a woman, or just someone who cares about women in general.

Ohio Senator J.D. Vance, Donald Trump’s pick to be his vice president this go-round, is even more accommodating than Mike Pence was—hard to imagine. He’s said he would have blocked the certification of the Electoral College vote if it had been up to him on January 6, 2021. In addition to his willingness to abandon democracy, he’s completely comfortable sacrificing women’s rights. There is no doubt about where he stands on abortion. It’s so clear that he is essentially Trump’s guarantee to the most conservative parts of his base that he will support a national ban on abortion if reelected, no matter what comes out of his mouth in the meantime.

Vance’s position has long been that he’s “100% Pro-Life.” He scrubbed that off of his website recently, but you can still find it on the Way Back Machine.

When he was on Face the Nation in May, Vance said that his view was the same as Trump’s, that abortion should be up to the states. But he conveniently hedged his bets, saying “the gross majority” of policy, whatever that means, would be set by the states. He also said, “I wanna save as many babies as possible,” and that he thought it was “totally reasonable to say that late-term abortions should not happen, with reasonable exceptions.” 

Even those recently adopted views would permit states to outright ban abortion and exclude exceptions that protect victims of rape and incest or the mother’s health. But it’s clear that these are Johnny-come-lately statements of convenience. In a debate while he was running for the Senate in 2022, Vance said that he was personally opposed to abortion rights and insinuated that a national ban on abortion would be welcome.

It’s reminiscent of the Supreme Court Justices who promised under oath at their confirmation hearings that Roe v. Wade and women’s abortion rights were unchangeable law and then promptly overturned them. Do you believe what J.D. Vance said before he got the vice presidential gig or what he said before that? More importantly, what do the people who helped him land the vice presidential nomination with Trump believe he will do if he gets into office?

We all know where Vance stands. To confirm it, when Ohio’s Constitutional amendment codifying the right to abortion and contraception passed last November, Vance tweeted that it was a “gut punch.”

Now Vance is preparing to win that war, and we must not let that happen.

Donald Trump is the oldest presidential candidate in our history. That script he’s been using against Biden? It all applies to him. Unlike Biden, as a candidate, he hasn’t made important medical results like bloodwork or even his weight public. We still haven’t seen a report from a doctor with a valid medical license about his injuries during the shooting.

If Trump is elected, J.D. Vance is only a heartbeat away from the presidency. He’s the guarantor of support for a national abortion ban, and possibly more—Vance supports, or at least he still did publicly last year, the enforcement of the Comstock Act. As we discussed during the debate over the abortion drug mifepristone, Republicans have suggested enforcing the Comstock Act in an effort to prohibit the drug’s shipment in the mail, along with prohibiting any shipment of materials about abortion or equipment that could be used to perform one, even if it has dual purposes.

Back in April 2023, I wrote about the Act:

“In 1996 then-Congresswoman Patricia Schroeder (D-CO) tried to convince the House to take the Comstock Act off the books. They didn’t. But her floor speech has resonance today. She explained that the Act was named for a man named Anthony Comstock, who ‘was one of these people who decided only he knew what was virtuous and right, and somehow he managed to convince all sorts of people that this was correct.’ That sounds familiar.

She continued, ‘Anthony Comstock was a religious fanatic who spent his life in a personal crusade for moral purity—as defined, of course, by himself. This crusade resulted in the arrest and imprisonment of a multitude of Americans whose only crime was to exercise their constitutional right of free speech in ways that offended Anthony Comstock. Women seemed to particularly offend Anthony Comstock, most particularly women who believed in the right to plan their families through the use of contraceptives, or in the right of women to engage in discussions and debate about matters involving sexuality, including contraception and abortion.’”

Whether it’s Anthony Comstock, Donald Trump, Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk, or J.D. Vance, women don’t need men to tell them what they can do. They just don’t.

It’s hard to stay focused on just one issue in the times we live in, but abortion is a big deal. It’s important in and of itself—it’s health care, it’s the right to determine your own future, it’s the ability to preserve fertility or choose when it’s the right time to have a family. But it’s also a marker of the larger issue of whether women are first-class citizens with the same rights as men. Donald Trump and J.D. Vance don’t think so.

Kamala Harris is not officially in yet, but as of tonight, enough delegates have committed to her for her to become the Democratic nominee. She campaigned in earnest today, telling Americans, “I was a courtroom prosecutor. In those roles I took on perpetrators of all kinds. Predators who abused women. Fraudsters who ripped off consumers. Cheaters who broke the rules for their own gain. So hear me when I say I know Donald Trump's type.”

We know what Trump thinks about women. He tells us all the time. Whether it’s the way he treats his wives, the sexual encounter with Stormy Daniels, the sexual assault of E. Jean Carroll, or the grotesque way he’s talked about he own daughter Ivanka. Women are sexualized. And women are stupid in his view. He did that today with Kamala Harris, calling her “dumb as a rock.”

Today, it’s all fun and games, and we’re entitled to enjoy it, but we know what’s coming. So, get ready to vote. Democrats must make sure that neither Trump nor Vance has the chance to impose a national abortion ban. Democrats must win sufficient majorities in both houses of Congress if they intend to restore protections for abortion. Women and their allies need to vote like their lives depend on it this year, because quite literally, they do.

Remember the ad? Two young women are in a car, they’re racing to get out of state. “We’re almost there, you’re going to make it,” one says to the other, just as a police siren goes off behind them. A Trooper pulls them over. “Miss, I’m going to need you to get out of the vehicle,” he says in an Alabama accent, “and take a pregnancy test.” It seems far-fetched. But then, doesn’t everything about the rollback of women’s rights these days seem a little surreal? Take it seriously. Make it a reason you commit to vote and to help others understand the importance of voting in this election. Women’s rights to make their own decisions are on the line, and it matters desperately.

We’re in this together,

Joyce