J.D. Vance says suburban women care about ‘normal things’, not abortion rights

Republican vice presidential nominee J.D. Vance said abortion is not a top issue for suburban women voters in 2024, claiming that this critical block of voters instead care about “normal things” like public safety and grocery prices.

Vance made the comment in an interview with Fox News’ Laura Ingraham who asked the Ohio Republican senator what he would say to suburban women who say they only care about abortion.

Vance replied: “Well, first of all, I don’t buy that, Laura. I think most suburban women care about the normal things that most Americans care about, right? They care about inflation, they care about the price of groceries, they care about public safety in the streets where their kids play.”

The issue of abortion rights has dogged the Republican Party since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022. The reversal of that longstanding ruling paved the way for GOP-controlled state legislatures to ban abortion at any stage of pregnancy without provisions for rape, incest, or the life of the mother. 

Former President Donald Trump appointed three of the six Supreme Court justices who overturned Roe. Trump now falsely claims that there was broad consensus that Roe v. Wade should have been overturned, and says that he now believes abortion rights should be up to individual states to decide.

Polling shows Trump’s position is broadly unpopular.

A Kaiser Family Foundation poll released on Aug. 14 found that 74% of reproductive age women in the United States say abortion should be legal in all or most cases. The same 74% oppose Trump’s position that states should be able to decide whether abortion is legal or not.

Polling also shows that abortion is one of the top issues for women voters in the 2024 election.

A second Kaiser Family Foundation survey taken before President Joe Biden dropped out of the race found that 1 in 5 women under the age of 30 say that abortion rights is their most important issue in the November election. 

An Aug. 14 report from the Associated Press found that abortion bans have led dozens of pregnant women across the country to be turned away from emergency rooms when they needed immediate care, leading to adverse outcomes that had profound impacts on their future fertility. 

What’s more, abortion is on the ballot in nearly a dozen states in November, giving voters a chance to decide whether abortion will be legal in their state. 

Meanwhile, Vice President Kamala Harris, now the Democratic nominee for president, has made both lowering the cost of groceries and other necessary items as well as reinstating and protecting abortion rights the top pillars of her campaign.

In her stump speeches, Harris says that while inflation is cooling, prices are too high and she will take on companies who are price gouging to help bring costs down.

“When I was attorney general, I went after price-fixing schemes, and when I am president, I will continue that work to bring down prices,” Harris said Aug. 10 at a campaign rally in Las Vegas, Nevada. “I will take on big corporations that engage in illegal price gouging, corporate landlords that unfairly raise rents on working families, and take on Big Pharma and cap the cost of prescription drugs for all Americans.”

Harris went on to say that she would sign a federal law that restores the right to reproductive freedom, and blamed the loss of reproductive freedom directly on Trump.

“We all know how we got here.  When he was president, Donald Trump handpicked three members of the United States Supreme Court because he intended for them to undo the protections of Roe v. Wade. And as he intended, they did,” Harris said. “Now in more than 20 states, there is a Trump abortion ban, many with no exceptions even for rape and incest.” 

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, the Democratic vice presidential nominee, slammed Vance’s comment on suburban women’s feelings on abortion rights.

“It’s pretty normal to respect a woman’s right to make her own damn health care decisions,” Walz said in a post on X of Vance’s comment.