Tim Walz shuts down JD Vance with ‘pro-women’ stance on abortion: ‘This is basic human rights’
JD Vance (left) and Tim Walz (right) addressed abortion access at the 2024 United States vice presidential debate. (Getty)
Tim Walz shut down JD Vance at the 2024 United States vice presidential debate with the Democrat’s “pro-women” stance on abortion. The Republican vice-presidential nominee said that abortion laws should be left to each state to decide.
At the vice presidential debate on 1 October, Harris’ running mate Walz said that the overturn of Roe v. Wade and its impact in red states is a denial of “basic human rights” for women and those with uteruses to practice bodily autonomy at a fundamental level. Walz also argued that abortion bans needlessly see women dying as a result of a lack of healthcare.
Walz said during the debate: “This is basic human rights. We have seen maternal mortality skyrocket in Texas, outpacing many other countries in the world. This is about healthcare.
“How can we as a nation say that your life and your rights, as basic as the right to control your own body, is determined on geography,” he noted.
Vance previously supported a nationwide ban on abortions before he joined Trump’s presidential election campaign, and argued that the Democrats are “pro-abortion”. To this, Walz responded by saying that they are in favour of women and those with uteruses making their “own choice”.
“No we’re not. We’re pro-women. We’re pro-freedom to make your own choice. We know what the implications are to not be that.
“Women having miscarriages, women not getting the care [they need], physicians feeling like they may be prosecuted for providing that care,” Walz said.
Walz was responsible for pushing forward legislation in Minnesota, where he is governor, to preserve the right to obtain reproductive care. In the debate, he raised the impact of leaving reproductive rights to state politicians.
“There’s a young woman named Amber Thurman, she happened to be in Georgia, a restrictive state. She had to travel a long distance to North Carolina to try and get her care. Amber Thurman died in that journey,” said Walz. “There’s a very real chance [that] had Amber Thurman lived in Minnesota she would be alive today.”
He also noted Project 2025, which has been linked to Trump and Vance, and its alleged vision to “make it more difficult, if not impossible, to get contraception and limit access, if not eliminate access to infertility treatments”.
For abortion support in the US, visit Planned Parenthood here. For abortion support in the UK and Northern Ireland, visit the NHS website here. For abortion support in Ireland, which has been lawful since March 2020, visit HSE here.
