VP debate: abortion, gun violence, Obamacare appear

Abortion, gun violence and Obamacare were all front and center Tuesday night as vice presidential candidates Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D) and Sen. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio) took the stage in New York City for their only debate of the campaign.

“I grew up in a working-class family in a neighborhood where I knew many young women who had had unplanned pregnancies and decided to end those pregnancies because they felt like they had no other options,” Vance said during the debate. , organized by CBS.

He mentioned a friend growing up who “told him a few years ago that she felt like if she hadn’t had that abortion, it would have ruined her life because she was in an abusive relationship. And I think what I take from that is that, as a Republican who proudly wants to protect innocent lives in this country, who proudly wants to protect the vulnerable, is that my party has to do so much better work to regain the American people’s trust in this issue where, quite frankly, they just don’t trust us.”

“I want us as the Republican Party to be pro-family in every sense of the word,” Vance added. “I want us to support fertility treatments. I want us to make it easier for mothers to afford to have babies… I think there’s so much we can do in terms of public policy just to give women more options.” can give.”

Fall over Roe v. Wade

Walz pointed out that Vance’s running mate, former President Donald Trump, has bragged about appointing Supreme Court justices who helped overturn the case. Roe v. Wadethe 1973 Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion nationwide.

“And then he tells us it’s ‘a beautiful thing’ to send (abortion decisions) to the states,” Walz said. “Amanda Zurawski wouldn’t agree with you that it’s a beautiful thing.”

Zurawski, a young bride in Texas, was 18 weeks pregnant when she suffered a complication, but she could not get an abortion because it would have put the doctors who performed the procedure in legal jeopardy due to the state’s strict abortion ban. said. “She went home, got sepsis, almost died, and now she may have trouble having children. Or in Kentucky, a 12-year-old child is raped and impregnated by her stepfather. Those are horrific cases.”

“When (the moderator) asked about that, Senator Vance said two wrongs don’t make a right,” Walz said. “There is no right. (They say) it’s up to the states to decide what’s good for Texas and might not be good for Washington. That’s not how this works.”

Vance and Walz also discussed the Amber Thurman case. “Amber Thurman happened to be in Georgia, a restrictive state” when it comes to abortions, Walz said. “That’s why she had to travel a long distance to North Carolina to get her care. Amber Thurman died on that journey back and forth… How can we as a nation say that your life and your rights – as basic as the right to control your own body – are determined by geography? Is there a real chance that if Amber Thurman had lived in Minnesota (where abortion is legal), she would still be alive today.

Dispute over Minnesota law

Vance agreed that “Amber Thurman should still be alive, and there are a lot of people who should still be alive.” Vance then brought forward a bill from Minnesota that Walz signed into law. “The doctor who directs an abortion in which the baby survives has no obligation to provide life-saving care to a baby who survives a botched abortion,” Vance said.

“That’s not true,” interjected Walz; however, he provided no further explanation as to what the law said. In fact, the law that Walz signed in May 2023 updated a state law regarding “infants born alive.” In the past, according to ABC7 in Chicago, Minnesota, state law said: “All reasonable measures consistent with good medical practice, including the compilation of appropriate medical records, shall be taken by the responsible medical personnel to preserve the life and health of the live born child .” The law was updated to instead say that medical personnel must “care for the child born alive.” The update also included a provision that said: “A child born alive shall be fully recognized as a human person and shall be afforded immediate protection under the law.”

Vance was also asked by moderator Norah O’Donnell why he changed his mind about supporting a national abortion ban after initially saying he supported a ban after 15 weeks of pregnancy. “I have never supported a national ban,” Vance responded. “When I ran for Senate in 2022, I talked about setting a minimum national standard.” But on a 2022 podcast, Vance did say, “I would certainly like to see abortion become illegal nationally.”

Compassion for gun violence

The topic of gun violence created some agreement between the two candidates, with Vance saying, “I think Governor Walz and I probably agree that we need to do better in this area.” He also said he trusted local law enforcement to make decisions on how to reduce the problem. When it comes to gun-related crimes, “the vast majority are committed with illegally obtained firearms,” Vance said. “Thanks to Harris’ open border, we have seen a huge influx in the number of illegal weapons controlled by Mexican drug cartels.”

“What do we do with the schools? And I say this without liking the answer… I think, unfortunately, that we need to increase security in our schools; we need to have better closures… and more school personnel officers, Vance said.

In contrast, Walz emphasized the use of enhanced background checks and “red flag” laws that remove guns from people likely to pose a danger to themselves or others. “I have a 17-year-old and he witnessed a shooting at a community center while he was playing volleyball,” Walz said. ‘Look, I’m a hunter. I own firearms, so does the vice president. We understand the Second Amendment, but our first responsibility is to our children. In Minnesota, we have improved red flag laws, improved background checks, and we can start collecting data. But here’s the problem: We have people who won’t allow gun violence to even be investigated.”

Walz appeared to be referring to the Dickey Amendment, a 1997 law that barred the CDC from advocating gun control. The practical effect of the law, however, was that the CDC completely stopped researching gun violence. Ultimately, Congress began reallocating money for gun violence research in 2020.

Regarding the Affordable Care Act (ACA), “I think you can make the argument that (former President Trump) saved Obamacare, which it did disastrously until Donald Trump came along,” Vance said. “When Obamacare was buckling under the weight of its own regulatory burden and health care costs, Donald Trump did not destroy the program. Instead, he worked in a bipartisan manner to ensure Americans had access to affordable care.”

Walz disagreed. “Donald Trump… was (in 2016 on the assumption that) the first thing he was going to do on day one was repeal Obamacare,” he said. “On day one, he tried to sign an executive order repealing the ACA. He signed on to a lawsuit to appeal the ACA, but lost at the Supreme Court, and he would have repealed the ACA if he had not had the courage of (the late Republican Senator from Arizona) John McCain,” who voted against the repeal of the law.