Yale Law School, Come Get Your Boy

F*ck J.D. Vance.

J.D. Vance (Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

You know what? Rape and incest are more than just “inconvenient.” But that’s the way J.D. Vance described them in a recent interview. Because of course.

The Yale Law School grad turned Ohio senate candidate was asked if victims of rape or incest should be forced to give birth and his answer, hoo boy, is it getting quite a bit of attention, as reported by the Daily Beast:

Asked by Curtis Jackson of Spectrum News 1 in Columbus, OH, whether a woman should be forced to give birth even if the pregnancy was the result of incest or rape, Vance replied that “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 to me is really 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 a right to life.”

Yes, the man who exploited his own family for notoriety and a certain kind of conservative bona fides is also willing to put people with uteruses on the altar of his ambitions. (Seriously, don’t @ me with your “Hillbilly Elegy is genius” BS. If you actually want to read a compelling tale of how growing up in Appalachia reverberates throughout a legal career, check out Cassie Chambers’s Hill Women. You’re welcome.)

Vance’s political opponents have jumped on the interview, hoping to capitalize on it:

Sponsored

The hits are coming in from all sides.

What in the blast from the 90s is this? Tom Arnold, with the hot (accurate) take:

And for our visual learners:

Sponsored

Vance’s strategy for dealing with this blowback has been…. bold. It’s seemingly predicated on the assumption that no one will have the stomach to actually listen to an entire 13-minute interview with Vance:

Vance campaign press secretary Taylor Van Kirk provided a statement claiming Vance did not say rape and incest were “inconvenient” circumstances.

“Nowhere in the interview cited does JD actually say what the Daily Beast is dishonestly claiming he said. The transcript of the interview bears this out as that phrase is never uttered and JD even rejects the entire premise of the question he was asked by the interviewer,” the statement said. “The Daily Beast’s pathetic attempt to put words in his mouth show that they’ve traded in any semblance of journalistic integrity to be full on leftwing political activists.” (A recording of the interview can be heard here.)

Friends, I did listen to the interview and, while rage-inducing on other issues, it does not provide the cover his campaign wishes it did.


Kathryn Rubino is a Senior Editor at Above the Law, host of The Jabot podcast, and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. AtL tipsters are the best, so please connect with her. Feel free to email her with any tips, questions, or comments and follow her on Twitter (@Kathryn1).