Donald Trump’s vice presidential pick, JD Vance, said in 2021 that “we have to go to war” against the idea that women can decide not to have children, suggesting that someone who focuses on building their career instead of making babies will be “a sad, lonely, pathetic person.”
In an interview with The Federalist in May 2021, Vance was asked what he thinks conservatives can do to encourage Americans to have more kids. He suggested cultural messaging is key.
“To be a little stark about this, I think we have to go to war against the anti-child ideology that exists in our country,” said Vance, who is currently the Republican senator from Ohio.
Though he generally didn’t specify the gender of the childless people he was criticizing, the context of his remarks made it seem he was primarily speaking to women.
Citing a conversation that had recently unfolded on Twitter, Vance described a “ridiculous effort by millennial feminist writers” to talk about why there are good reasons not to have children and how some of them were glad they didn’t have kids and even to encourage “people who had had children to talk about why they regretted having children.”
He ripped these unnamed “mediocre millennial journalists” and suggested that if they’re advocating for women to focus on advancing their careers over making babies, they are “pathetic.”
“Not enough people have accepted that if they put their entire life’s meaning into their credential, into where they went to school, into what kind of job they have ― if you put all of your life’s meaning into that, you’re going to be the sort of person who asks women to talk about how they regret having children,” Vance said.
He added, “You’re going to be a sad, lonely, pathetic person and you’re going to know it internally.”
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The GOP vice presidential nominee went on to say that people who have had children “have actually built something more meaningful with their lives,” and that is why “we have to go to war against that ideology and the people behind it.”
Vance brought up his sister, Lindsay Lewis Ratliff, who he said sometimes wonders aloud if she should have waited to have children. Lewis, who is five years older than him, got married and began having kids while Vance was still living with his grandparents. She is now a mother of three.
“Sometimes, you know, she’ll say things to me like, ‘You know, maybe I should have delayed having kids. Maybe I should have went to school,’” Vance said. “And it’s like, Lindsay, you’ve been a great mom. Your children are happy. They’re healthy.”
“People like my sister should not feel like the cultural messaging is ‘your life is inadequate,’” he added. “The people who are sending that message should feel that their life is inadequate. And of course they do. They’re just too ashamed about it to talk about it.”
Ratliff recently pushed back on people criticizing Vance over other comments he’s made about women and families ― specifically, his claims in 2021 that “childless cat ladies” are “miserable” and have “no direct stake” in America’s future. Ratliff called Vance a “testament to the women in his life.”
“JD was raised by some of the strongest women I know and went on to marry an incredibly strong woman,” she said in a statement to CNN on Saturday, referring to the candidate’s wife, Usha Vance. “The attacks from the media and Democrats that assume anything otherwise is vile.”
You can watch Vance’s full interview with The Federalist here. His comments on “going to war” against the idea that women don’t have to have kids begin at the 35:40 time stamp.
Vance’s insistence that women make babies doesn’t seem to extend to supporting women after they have children or to women struggling with infertility.
The Ohio Republican has referred to the idea of universal child care as “class war against normal people,” and in June, he voted against the Right to IVF Act, a bill that would have ensured women have a federal right to access reproductive technologies such as in vitro fertilization.
Vance’s previous attacks on child-free women have resurfaced in part because he’s now the GOP vice presidential nominee, but also because he lumped Vice President Kamala Harris in as one of the “childless cat ladies.” Harris has two stepchildren in her marriage with second gentleman Doug Emhoff.
A Trump campaign spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
