Trump’s VP Pick, J.D. Vance, Pushed for Police to Track & Criminalize Abortions

AMY GOODMAN: This is “War, Peace, and the Presidency: Breaking with Convention.” We’re broadcasting from the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. I’m Amy Goodman.

“J.D. Vance Wants Police to Track People Who Have Abortions.” That’s the headline of a new article just published by the investigative news outlet The Lever, which looks at how Vance pressured federal regulators last June to kill a privacy rule that prevents police from accessing the medical records of people seeking reproductive healthcare.

We’re joined now by the report’s author, Veronica Riccobene. She’s a producer and reporter with The Lever.

Veronica, lay out what you found.

VERONICA RICCOBENE: Hi, Amy. Thank you so much for having me on.

First off, the Biden administration last spring proposed a rule in its draft form expanding HIPAA protections under the Department of Health and Human Services. Traditionally, HIPAA protections, which keep medical information private, don’t extend to law enforcement investigations, so if a criminal investigation is open, police can subpoena for records, for medical records. However, the Biden administration — the rule which was then proposed at the time makes it so that not even police can access reproductive health records specifically. This rule was made keeping in mind that states like Alabama have passed laws making it illegal for women to leave the state to obtain abortions and seeking to criminalize abortions.

After this proposed rule was introduced by the Biden administration, J.D. Vance, along with other congressional Republicans, wrote a letter pressuring the administration to repeal this rule. They said that it was an overstepping of HHS’s bounds and an inclusion on congressional authority.

AMY GOODMAN: So, talk about exactly what J.D. Vance’s role was in pushing for police to track, and talk about who he wants tracked.

VERONICA RICCOBENE: Right. So, what this law does is that it makes these medical records private, specifically people who are seeking reproductive health. So, it goes without saying that the people that J.D. Vance wants tracked are people who are seeking abortions.

He played a principal role in writing this letter and signing it. The letter was not successful. The rule went into place anyway. But what’s really shocking and scary about the story is that the rule was just implemented by the Biden administration, it wasn’t signed into law. So, an incoming Trump administration could potentially repeal it. And considering that J.D. Vance himself has stood up as a kind of a crusade against this specific rule, I’m personally afraid for that.

AMY GOODMAN: And can you talk about J.D. Vance’s position on abortion, how it has changed — or, should I say, positions on abortion?

VERONICA RICCOBENE: Yes. Similar to President — or, former President Trump, he’s a little bit all over the place. Personally, it seems like he is morally against abortion. He has always stated that he doesn’t believe in abortion. Specifically, he doesn’t believe in it in cases for exceptions for rape or incest. He said famously that two wrongs don’t make a right.

Gearing up to his announcement, though, he kind of leaned back a little bit on the anti-abortion rhetoric. He recently — though he supports a national ban at 15 weeks, he recently told George Stephanopoulos that he doesn’t support a ban against the abortion pill. He also said that he believes it should be a state issue, doesn’t support a national abortion ban. That being said, you know, his support of breaking down this rule would essentially make abortion illegal everywhere. So, I don’t — what he says he believes and what is actually in paper is quite different.

AMY GOODMAN: I want to go to a clip you just referenced. Speaking in 2021 to Spectrum News in Ohio, J.D. Vance was asked whether he supported abortion exceptions in cases of rape and incest.

J.D. VANCE: 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 an unborn babies as inconveniences to be discarded?

CURTIS JACKSON: Should a woman be forced to carry a child to term after she has been the victim of incest or rape?

J.D. VANCE: Look, my view on this has been very clear, and I think the question betrays a certain presumption that’s wrong. 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. We want women to have opportunities. We want women to have choices. But above all, we want women and young boys in the womb to have the right to life.

AMY GOODMAN: So, that was J.D. Vance in 2021, calling rape an “inconvenience,” Veronica?

VERONICA RICCOBENE: Yeah. His record specifically speaking on women is not great. He’s made references to crazy cat ladies before. It seems that he has like a very strong moral position that abortion is murder, and he wants to follow through on that by criminalizing it for everyone who seeks one and anyone who helps perform one.

AMY GOODMAN: Do you feel that J.D. Vance’s records on abortion have been accurately conveyed in the mainstream media?

VERONICA RICCOBENE: I think there’s a big light being shone right now on the fact that Donald Trump, compared to the rest of the Republican Party, does not seem as hard-line on abortion. Based on analysis, it doesn’t seem that he personally has that strong of an opinion on it. He seems personally reticent to lean into the issue because it does not poll well for Republicans. So, yes and no. I think media has really, you know, focused on that shift, but at the end of the day, J.D. Vance is anti-abortion, and I don’t know that the extent to which he wishes to criminalize and prosecute abortions is being correctly reported in the media now.

AMY GOODMAN: And finally, can you put this in the bigger picture, post-Dobbs, post the overturning of Roe v. Wade, which President Trump has proudly talked about his Supreme Court that overturned Roe v. Wade? Though there’s a lot of talk of this in the Project 2025, when it comes to the much smaller Republican national platform, abortion is only referenced once.

VERONICA RICCOBENE: It seems to be this issue that Republicans love and hate. Some members of the party can’t seem to help embrace it, and others want to move away from it as far as possible. What we do know, in the Project 2025 plan outlined by former members of Trump’s administration and the Heritage Foundation, there is an active plan to expand the CDC’s surveillance powers over abortion. People behind Project 2025, conservatives, want to track people who have abortion. They want to know who is performing abortions, and ultimately with the purpose of prosecuting, is the future we’re going towards.

AMY GOODMAN: Veronica Riccobene, reporter and producer with The Lever, we’ll link to your new article, “J.D. Vance Wants Police to Track People Who Have Abortions.”

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