GOP vice presidential candidate JD Vance really wanted America to know that he has friends who have had abortions.

Still, before Vance launched into the story of his “dear” friend, he should have signaled to the audience that she’d consented to it being told on national TV. Without that assurance, it sounded like Vance was busting a friend for receiving life-saving health care, which she may or may not have wanted him to do.

The story was meant to induce sympathy. Vance told the audience that his friend “felt like if she hadn't had that abortion, that it would have destroyed her life because she was in an abusive relationship.” Then Vance looked directly into the camera and said, “I know she’s watching tonight, and I love you.”

Suddenly, I thought of all the women who are friendly with Vance sitting at debate watch parties and feeling all eyes turn on them to wonder, “Is he talking about you?”

At first, Vance seemed to be saying that he understood why his friend sought an abortion. This was a shift from his previous 2023 position when he signed a letter along with other Republicans that insisted “abortion is not health care–it is a brutal act that destroys the life of an unborn child and hurts women.”

Vance acknowledging that he’s close to someone who had an abortion is like saying, “Some of my best friends are Black/Jewish/Muslim” in an attempt to defend against charges of racism/antisemitism/ Islamophobia. Vance turned his friend into a human shield to gain sympathy not for her, but for him.

A closer read shows how the........

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