(Oregon Right to Life) — U.S. Senator J.D. Vance and Minnesota Governor Tim Walz engaged in the first and only vice presidential debate of the 2024 election cycle on Tuesday night, bringing a generally mild and civil tone into the final weeks before November 5.
During the debate hosted by CBS in New York City, the candidates defended their running mates’ positions on major issues, including immigration, the economy, and abortion.
On the subject of abortion, Senator Vance – former U.S. President Donald Trump’s running mate – presented a careful, moderate argument in favor of cultivating pro-life sentiment on a cultural level while leaving the issue up to the states and refraining from passing federal legislation.
Governor Walz, who shares a ticket with current Vice President Kamala Harris, argued that access to legal abortion is about protecting “basic human rights” and rejected Vance’s claims that a law he signed last year greenlit the killing of babies who survive abortion attempts.
RELATED: Kamala Harris Taps Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz for VP: Pro-Life Leaders Respond
The Ohio Senator, author of the 2016 memoir Hillbilly Elegy, referenced his upbringing in Appalachia and spoke about women he knew in his community who got abortions because they “didn’t feel like they had any other options.” He said he supports the protection of “innocent life” and spoke in favor of policies that would be “pro-family in the fullest sense of the word,” including making it “more affordable” to raise a family.
Asked about a potential 15-week federal abortion limit, Vance said he “never supported a national ban.” Multiple times, the VP candidate said Republicans must work to “win back trust” on the abortion issue by promoting a pro-family agenda and leaving legislative decisions to the states, which he said is the “proper way to handle this.”
Vance also took a swing at Walz over a law the Minnesota governor signed in 2023 that removed language explicitly requiring doctors to perform life-saving care for infants born alive after abortion attempts. The law previously mandated that medical personnel “preserve the life and health of the born alive infant.” The amended legislation now states that medical personnel must simply “care for the infant who is born alive.”
Additional language – including a definition of the born infant as “a human person” who must be “accorded immediate protection under the law” – remains in the law. However, the changes have sparked serious concerns among pro-life advocates about the implications for babies accidentally born during abortion attempts.
“The concern is that the law no longer requires that lifesaving measures be taken. It only requires ‘care,’” Minnesota Citizens Concerned for Life communications director Paul Stark told National Catholic Register (NCR). “So the law as it’s now written could allow a baby to be left to die, even a baby who could be saved with appropriate lifesaving measures.”
Read More About Infants Born Alive After Abortion Attempts
For his part, Walz argued that the law in question had been misinterpreted.
He also leaned heavily on emphasizing hard cases such as medical emergency and incest. All states with abortion limits in place have an exception for a medical emergency. Most statewide pro-life laws already contain exceptions for rape and incest, despite the fact that many pro-life advocates believe that the unborn’s right to life does not depend on how they were conceived.
Walz also inaccurately claimed that the 2022 death of young Georgia woman Amber Thurman, was a result of the state’s pro-life law. Thurman actually died after taking the abortion pill while pregnant with twins, suffering an incomplete abortion, contracting an infection that developed into sepsis, and becoming victim to delayed treatment at the hospital for unreported reasons.
RELATED: No, Georgia’s Pro-Life Law Was Not Responsible for the Deaths of Two Moms
The Democratic vice presidential candidate further argued that supporting legal abortion is about protecting “basic human rights,” and that he is “pro-woman and pro-freedom,” not “pro-abortion.” According to Walz, decisions about abortion are “women’s decisions to make,” and he advised Republicans and pro-life advocates to “mind your own business.” Walz notably did not say whether he thought the unborn were human beings at any stage of pregnancy or what rights, if any, they have.
Carol Tobias, president of National Right to Life, said in a Tuesday night statement that Walz’s position on abortion is clear.
“His full-throated support of unlimited abortion throughout pregnancy may have been something he didn’t want to admit to during the debate, but his record is clear,” Tobias said. “Tim Walz supports abortion anywhere, under any circumstances, and at any time throughout pregnancy. His radical, extreme position on abortion is out of touch with the majority of Americans.”
“If pro-abortion extremists Kamala Harris and Tim Walz were elected, they would put preborn babies in the crosshairs and future generations of Americans would be endangered,” she added.
As governor, Walz signed legislation legalizing abortion throughout pregnancy for any reason. He supports codifying Roe v. Wade at a federal level, which would mandate legal abortion nationwide and deny pro-life states and voters the right to enshrine any pro-life protections.
Oregon Right to Life believes in the sanctity of all human life from the moment of conception to natural death. Abortion ends the life of a genetically distinct, growing human being. We oppose abortion at any point of gestation. In rare cases, a mother may have a life threatening condition in which medical procedures intended to treat the condition of the mother may result in the unintended death of her preborn baby. At the same time, ORTL recognizes that modern medical practice has and will continue to increase the ability to save both the life of the mother and the baby. Read this and all of our position statements here.
