JD Vance says his "Mawmaw" had eight miscarriages. His policies deny women like her lifesaving care.
www.motherjones.com
His position is curious for someone whose story begins with the pregnancy of a 13-year-old girl.

One in every ten pregnancies in the US ends in a miscarriage, a common medical event for which there are safe and effective treatments should there be complications. But over the past two years, having a miscarriage in many states has become far more dangerous, thanks in part to the Supreme Court’s 2022 Dobbs decision overturning Roe v Wade.

Thirteen states have passed total abortion bans. Four others ban abortion after six weeks—a de facto ban. These laws have resulted in a rash of horror stories—not about the anticipated illegal backroom abortion deaths, but about ordinary women having ordinary but occasionally life-threatening pregnancy complications, while hospitals and doctors refuse to treat them for fear of being prosecuted.

Among the legion of GOP anti-abortion politicians in the US who’ve helped create this carnage, there is one you might expect to have some sympathy for the suffering of these women: Vice presidential candidate and Ohio Senator JD Vance. On the surface, the politician who denigrated Democrats as the party of “childless cat ladies” and suggested that “the whole purpose of the postmenopausal female, in theory,” was to take care of children, would not be an obvious softie for the victims of policies that have left women bleeding out in hospital restrooms. And yet, he might understand the situation better than many of his Republican colleagues.

    • Cadeillac@lemmy.worldEnglish
      5·
      3 hours ago

      “I’ll never forget the time I convinced myself that I was gay. I was eight or nine, maybe younger, and I stumbled upon a broadcast by some fire-and-brimstone preacher. The man spoke about the evils of homosexuals, how they had infiltrated our society, and how they were all destined for hell absent some serious repenting. At the time, the only thing I knew about gay men was that they preferred men to women. This described me perfectly: I disliked girls, and my best friend in the world was my buddy Bill. Oh no, I’m going to hell.”

      When he brought up the issue with his grandmother — known to Vance as “Mamaw” — she replied bluntly: “Don’t be a fucking idiot, how would you know that you’re gay?”

      When Vance explained his reasoning, she laughed.

      “JD, do you want to suck dicks?” she said, according to the book.

      The young Vance, apparently “flabbergasted,” said: “Of course not!”

      “Then you’re not gay. And even if you did want to suck dicks, that would be okay,” she replied. “God would still love you.”

    • TrickDacy@lemmy.world
      5·
      4 hours ago

      Yeah that’s the story I meant. So it sounds to me like she was not really a piece of shit. At least not based on that story. At that time in rural America, telling a kid God would love them even if they were gay was about as progressive as you could expect.