this news is funded by viewers like you please support our work at democracynow.org as we continue to look at last night's CBS News vice presidential debate we turn to the issue of abortion this is Republican senator JD Vance now of course Donald Trump has been very clear that on the abortion policy specifically that we have a big country and it's diverse and California has a different viewpoint on this than Georgia Georgia has a different Viewpoint from Arizona and the proper way to handle this as messy as democracy sometimes is is to let voters make these
decisions let the individual states make their abortion policy and I think that's what makes the most sense in a very big a very diverse and let's be honest sometimes a very very messy and divided country Governor would you like to respond and also answer the question about restrictions yeah well the question got asked when Donald Trump made the accusation that wasn't true about Minnesota well let me tell you about this idea that there's States there's a young woman named Amber Thurman she happened to be in Georgia a restrictive State because of that she had to
travel a long distance to North Carolina to try and get her care Amber Thurman died in that Journey back and forth the fact of the matter is how can we as a nation say that your life and your rights as basic as the right to control your own body is determined on geography there's a very real chance had Amber Thurman lived in Minnesota she would be alive today so that's woles before that JD Vance Amy Littlefield is abortion access correspondent at the nation independent journalist who covers reproductive Health joining us from Boston your response to
this discussion and The Stance of these candidates I thought it was so powerful Amy to hear Amber Thurman's name from the debate stage right two weeks after propublica published the report that this young mother had had to travel to North Carolina for an abortion she'd suffered a complication that's rare when she was Back Home In Georgia and because the state of Georgia had made the simple procedure that would have saved her life of felony she died and left behind a six-year-old child um you know WS also could have mentioned candy Miller who propublica reported who
had died with her three-year-old daughter by her side after suffering the same rare complication in in a state that that banned abortion at 6 weeks worth noting by the way that a judge in Georgia just this week struck down the state six we abortion ban is unconstitutional the law that killed Amber Thurman um you know I have to say Amy watching this debate I felt like I was in a nightmare version of my high school sex egg class watching you know coach Tim Walls chastise the uh smug kid in the back of the room who
had gotten caught copying off of his classmates paper because what JD Vance seemed to be doing in this debate and frankly was very good at it is trying to uh co-opt the Democratic talking points that sometimes on a on abortion and trying to make his stance look moderate um because quite frankly his own Hardline position on abortion has flunked with the American people um you know he got everyone from Taylor Swift and beyond mad at him and you know cats and women we don't forget Amy we know where JD Vance stands on abortion um we
know that he spent his Saturday hanging out with leaders of the New Apostolic Reformation a far-right strain of Christianity that believes that people like you and I who espouse anything that looks left leaning are literally infested with demons that need to be vanquished through spiritual warfare this is the kind of company that JD Vance keeps but I'm going to say probably the most terrifying words i' ever ever said on on this program before Amy which is JD Vance sounded good trying to convince us that he was more moderate than he actually is on the issue
of abortion um because unlike Donald Trump JD van seems quite skilled at code switching and I have to say I think the three most frightening words that JD van said from the debate stage were I am 40 okay unlike Donald Trump not only is he good at code switching and hiding what he actually believes but JD Vance is going to be with us for a long time um yeah I wanted to go to uh something that was on Vance's website in July Jennifer Bender the senior politics reporter for huffpo tweeted a screenshot from Vance Senate
campaign website before it was wiped that described his views on abortion under the all caps title end abortion that was on his website it read in part eliminating abortion is first and foremost about protecting The Unborn but it's also about making our society more prab more Prof family the historic Do's decision puts this new era of society into motion one that prioritizes family and the sanctity of life and then last night Trump tweeted during and after the debate and it seems like it's the first time he said this I would not support a federal abortion
ban under any circumstances would in fact V to it because he wants the states to decide your response right I mean we know that Vance has said he's sympathetic to the idea that a National Abortion ban would be needed to prevent women from traveling out of state in order to seek an abortion right we know that Vance has said of rape and incest exceptions that two wrongs don't make a right we know you know that he is Hardline when it comes to being anti-abortion we know we know the Strat here because they wrote it down
it's in a more than 900 page document called project 2025 that talks about the need to ban abortion Nationwide not using an act of Congress or the people but using the 1873 Comstock act um and and Reviving that as a de facto ban on mailing abortion pills so you know we have to look at the strategy here and not get distracted by the Slick talking points and finally this all happened yesterday while Louisiana um Institute it's the first in the nation law that bans abortion medications calling them dangerous and they are used for a number
of different issues the significance of this in 15 seconds I mean we have to look at the recent report from pregnancy Justice that found that there was a record high number of instances of pregnancy related prosecutions over the year after the dobs decision at least 210 so this is the Collision of the War on Drugs um with anti-abortion policies that always affects low-income people and the most marginal people first Amy Littlefield abortion access correspondent at the nation an independent journalist who covers reproductive Health that does it for our show Democrat now we'll be doing a
4-Hour election night special on November 5th followed by a 2hour Morning Show the next day democracy Now produced with Mike Burke grene Fels Dena guzer Messiah rhods n sh Tammy waroff I'm Amy Goodman thanks for joining us democracy Now is funded by viewers like you please give today at democracynow.org
