By Ben Johnson

Former President Donald Trump announced Monday that he had selected Senator J.D. Vance (R-Ohio) as his vice presidential running mate, touching off rounds of praise and occasional statements of condemnation from the pro-life community.

Vance, who is presently serving his first term in the U.S. Senate, mirrors President Trump’s views on immigration and the importance of elevating the American middle class. The two men made a surprise appearance at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, shortly after delegates nominated the ticket.

Vance memorialized his underprivileged upbringing and chaotic family life in his 2016 memoir, “Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis,” which was made into a well-received movie directed by Ron Howard in 2020. After joining the Marines, Vance graduated from Yale Law School and worked at Peter Thiel’s venture capital firm before starting his own, where he raised more than $90 million. He has become a critic of Wall Street, called for higher corporate taxes, and supported raising the minimum wage.

Vance’s supporters say he has never lost touch with the struggling region of Appalachia that formed him. “There are few leaders in America that understand the challenges our families and children are facing today like Senator J.D. Vance,” Aaron Baer, president of the Ohio-based Center for Christian Virtue, told The Washington Stand. Jeremy Carl, author of the best-selling “The Unprotected Class,” has noted that “Vance comes from the forgotten white working class, and he has made concern for the people he came from the centerpiece of his career from the beginning. That’s incredibly important.”

David Closson, the director of the Center for Biblical Worldview at Family Research Council, congratulated Vance on Monday, noting that “Senator Vance was one of only five senators who received a perfect score on FRC Action’s scorecard for votes taken in 2023.” Vance once compared abortion to slavery. Vance also scored an A- from Students for Life Action and an A+ from SBA Pro-Life America. Michael New of the Charlotte Lozier Institute highlighted positive aspects of Vance’s abortion record, including his opposition to Ohio’s Amendment 1 and his decision to speak at the Ohio March for Life.

While running for office in 2022, Vance said the states could “have different abortion laws” but that there should also be a reasonable “minimum national standard.” He viewed the “Protecting Pain-Capable Unborn Children from Late-Term Abortions,” which would limit abortion to the first 15 weeks of pregnancy, or longer in the cases of rape or incest, as such a reasonable bill. The measure would allow more than nine out of 10 abortions in the United States to take place. Yet he attacked his opponent, former “pro-life Democrat” Tim Ryan, for supporting abortion until birth. “As much as you call me an extremist, you’re the extremist on this issue,” Vance told him in 2022.

As Trump’s vice presidential list narrowed to Vance, Senator Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), and North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum (R), Vance stepped back from his pro-life voting record to match the nominee.

“On the question of the abortion pill, what so many of us have said is that … the Supreme Court made a decision saying that the American people should have access to that medication. Donald Trump has supported that opinion. I support that opinion,” said Vance on the July 7 episode of “Meet the Press.” He went on to praise Trump’s view that Dobbs returned the issue of abortion to the states alone. “Donald Trump is the pragmatic leader here. He’s saying most abortion policy’s going to be decided by the states,” said Vance.

That outraged some pro-life leaders. “Both J.D. Vance and President Trump support the legalization of abortion pills,” said Lila Rose, founder of Live Action. “This is heartbreaking and wrong. Vance was once strongly against the murder of all preborn babies. Both men can still change their positions, and we will pray and work for them to do so.”

“The reality is this: we are dealing with two pro-abortion legalization tickets, with the Biden/Harris ticket supporting abortions on babies through all nine months of pregnancy as well as the political persecution of pro-life people,” Rose noted.

Yet abortion lobbyists decried Vance as an alleged right-wing crank on abortion. Planned Parenthood Action derided Vance as an “unqualified, anti-abortion politician who won’t protect any of your rights.” (Bold in original.) Reproductive Freedom for All (formerly NARAL) called Vance “an anti-abortion extremist” who is “out of step with the majority of Americans.” EMILY’s List said erroneously that Trump and Vance constitute “the most anti-abortion presidential ticket in history,” although President Ronald Reagan supported a Right to Life Amendment to the U.S. Constitution that would have protected all children from abortion. (Joe Biden voted for the amendment during the Reagan administration.) The pro-abortion PAC insisted, “a vote for Trump is a vote for a national abortion ban and an end to access to other essential forms of reproductive health care,” possibly a reference to Vance’s opposition to childhood transgender surgeries.

The Ohio senator has strongly opposed the transgender industry’s profit-fueled desire to carry out procedures on underage children. Last July, Vance introduced the Senate version of the Protect Children’s Innocence Act, which would protect minors from transgender surgeries and chemical injections, in an effort “to save countless young Americans from a lifetime of suffering and regret.” He also urged Ohio lawmakers to override the veto of a similar house bill, H.B. 68, by Governor Mike DeWine (R), which legislators proceeded to do.

“He is strong on this issue, and I support him, because I believe he will stop other kids from facing the harm that has plagued my childhood and has forever altered the course of my life,” said detransitioner Chloe Cole.

Vance became a longstanding and outspoken advocate for increasing the birthrate of native-born U.S. citizens, pointing out the political and economic problems of lower population. Vance has called for introducing economic incentives for families to have more children, such as making births “free” at the point of service.

“Students for Life Action has been proud to work with the senator’s team to provide additional benefits for young families and pregnant mothers, which is part of the hard work of protecting life in law and in service at every stage of life,” Students for Life Action President Kristan Hawkins told TWS. “But it will be important to talk with this ticket about the realities of how the Biden administration has weaponized policy and the law against pro-life Americans and the preborn children.”

At a time of record-breaking illegal immigration, Vance scored an A (90%) from the immigration watchdog, NumbersUSA.

Vance has admitted that his Christian faith has grown in recent years. He grew up in a family that identified as Christian but did not regularly attend church. Yet he learned lifelong lessons attending his father’s evangelical congregation. “I saw people of different races and classes worshipping together. I saw that there were certain moral expectations from my peers of what I should do,” Vance told Deseret News. When he entered Yale Law School in 2010, Vance revealed, “I would have called myself an atheist.” In 2015, he began seeking clarity about his Christian views. Vance selected the Roman Catholic faith due to its importance in the life of people close to him, as well as its intellectual depth. He was baptized for the first time in his life as a Roman Catholic in August 2019, according to his friend, Rod Dreher.

“I’ve seen how his sincere Christian faith gives him courage to stand for what’s right, even when it doesn’t make him popular with the most powerful forces in culture,” Baer told TWS.

If elected, J.D. Vance would be only the second Roman Catholic vice president in U.S. history. (Former Vice President Joe Biden also identifies as Catholic.) Vance, who will turn 40 years old on August 2, would also rank as the third-youngest vice president in U.S. history, behind former Vice Presidents Richard Nixon (who had just turned 40) and John C. Breckenridge (36 years old).

Vance met his wife — Usha Chilukuri Vance, who was born in San Diego to Indian immigrant parents — when both were students at Yale Law School. They got married in 2014 and have three children: Ewan, Vivek, and Mirabel. Like her parents, Mrs. Vance is a Hindu. “That was one of the things that made them such good parents, that made them really good people,” she told Fox News. Yet Senator Vance described his wife as “very supportive” when he began to “reengage with my own faith.”

“I knew that JD was searching for something. This just felt right for him,” said Mrs. Vance.

The couple seemingly has little trouble raising their sons and daughter in an interfaith home, because they “agree a lot” on family rearing and “talk a lot,” said Mrs. Vance.

Pro-life supporters hope Vance will take a strong stand for the unborn if elected. “With approximately 750,000 babies in states like California and New York still lacking basic protections, we need champions whose boldness will not waver,” said Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of SBA Pro-Life America, in a statement emailed to The Washington Stand. Her organization has committed to spending $92 million to reach 10 million voters in eight battleground states this election cycle.

Ben Johnson is senior reporter and editor at The Washington Stand.