Before Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, began sounding off about "childless cat ladies" and American families on the national stage, he championed a 2017 report by the authors of Project 2025, The New York Times reported.
Months after former resident Donald Trump took office in 2017, the Heritage Foundation released, “Culture and Opportunity: The Social and Economic Trends that Shape America,” a series of essays proposing sweeping restrictions on abortion and in vitro fertilization, among other limitations on reproductive rights.
Vance called the Heritage Foundation's proposed reforms “admirable” and was a keynote speaker at the report’s release event in Washington.
The authors of the report lay out a clear vision for the American family, warning of the decline in marriage rates among young people and the risks of women “spending a large portion of their most fertile years building their careers.”
“We need to do a much better job of educating people on the limitations of human fertility. These limits need to be discussed in light of the new novel 'solutions' that lure people into thinking that we can defer motherhood to fit our own timeline,” one of the essays reads. “It also means that we need to stop practices that may bring harm to others: the children born from high-tech pregnancies as well as the women who are exploited for their healthy reproductive capacities."
A spokesperson for Vance told The New York Times that the senator had “no role” in editing the report’s essays, nor any input on the commentary included.
But Vance has echoed these ideas throughout his political career. Trump's running mate has said he thinks abortion should be “illegal” and that he would vote “no” on a bill to legalize same-sex marriage. He’s repeatedly insulted adults who choose not to have children and even suggested that parents should have more voting power.
“Let’s face the consequences and the reality: If you don’t have as much of an investment in the future of this country, maybe you shouldn’t get nearly the same voice,” Vance said in 2021 speech. “If you don’t have children, you don’t have any skin in the game.”
In recent months, Trump has tried to distance himself from Project 2025, but his running mate’s long ties to the Heritage Foundation keep popping up. Vance wrote a foreword for a new book by the head of the Heritage Foundation, for example, and his personal Venmo account has shown ties to Project 2025’s architects.
