Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance (R) says his state’s vote on Tuesday to enshrine abortion rights “was a gut punch” for anti-abortion officials such as himself.
In a lengthy post online, Vance, who had campaigned against the effort to ensure abortion access, attempted to parse out out why the measure won with support from nearly 57 percent of voters.
“For pro lifers, last night was a gut punch. No sugar coating it,” he wrote.
“We have to recognize how much voters mistrust us (meaning elected Republicans) on this issue,” he added.
“Having an unplanned pregnancy is scary. Best case, you’re looking at social scorn and thousands of dollars of unexpected medical bills. We need people to see us as the pro-life party, not just the anti-abortion party.”
Abortion rights proponents have celebrated the Ohio vote.
“The results in Ohio underscore what the vast majority of Americans believe: politicians should not interfere in decisions that should be between a woman and her doctor,” Vice President Harris said in a statement.
It’s the latest state where voters have taken to the polls to stop restrictions on abortion access after the Supreme Court eliminated Roe v. Wade last year. States including Montana, Kentucky and Kansas have also voted in support of abortion rights after the high court’s ruling.
Ohio voters in August had also shot down a conservative-led attempt to it harder to amend the state constitution — an effort that was seen as directly aimed at making it harder for the abortion amendment to pass.
Vance, in his post on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, wrote that giving up on the issue “is not an option.”
“Instead, we need to understand why we lost this battle so we can win the war,” he wrote.
He suggested that Republicans should consider abortion restrictions with exceptions.
“I am as pro life as anyone, and I want to save as many babies as possible,” he wrote. “This is not about moral legitimacy but political reality.”
