Conservative women turn on JD Vance for attacking "childless" Democrats (2024)

A number of conservative women have criticized Donald Trump's running mate, Senator JD Vance, after his "childless cat ladies" comment reemerged.

The Ohio Republican has continued to receive backlash after remarks he made during a July 2021 appearance on Fox News' Tucker Carlson Tonight were shared online earlier this week. Vance said the Democratic Party was being led by people who did not have a "direct stake" in the future of the country because they didn't have children.

In his criticism, Vance mentioned Vice President Kamala Harris, who has two stepchildren through her husband, Doug Emhoff. He also mentioned New York Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, who has since adopted twins with his husband, Chasten Buttigieg.

"We're effectively run in this country—via the Democrats, via our corporate oligarchs—by a bunch of childless cat ladies who are miserable at their own lives and the choices that they've made, and so they want to make the rest of the country miserable, too," Vance said, adding, "You look at Kamala Harris, Pete Buttigieg, AOC, the entire future of the Democrats is controlled by people without children. And how does it make any sense that we've turned our country over to people who don't really have a direct stake in it."

Since Vance's comments resurfaced, conservative women have spoken out against them, suggesting the remarks could damaged Trump's 2024 election hopes, given how important the female vote is to the GOP ticket.

Corie Whalen, a onetime communications director for former Michigan Representative Justin Amash, a Republican, posted on X, formerly Twitter: "I'm a right-leaning woman who agrees with almost nothing the Biden-Harris administration has done, but the primal hatred and disgust Vance stokes in me transcends politics.

"I suspect I am not the only woman of my vintage, so to speak, who feels this way."

Beverly Hallberg, the president of District Media Group and a Fox News contributor, wrote on X: "I'm childless on earth, but I have a baby in heaven due to an ectopic pregnancy. Not all women who don't have children are childless by choice. It adds insult to injury, to put it mildly, when these comments are said."

In a follow-up post, Hallberg added: "Even if a politician is talking only about childless women who choose not to have kids (even tho that wasn't stated), it puts women who desire motherhood in the difficult position of having to explain that they aren't a liberal feminist, even though they are childless.

"It's not helpful to women, including conservative women like myself, and it's an unforced messaging error by a politician."

Meghan McCain, a former host of The View and the daughter of late Arizona Senator John McCain, wrote on X: "One of my best friends did rounds and rounds of unsuccessful IVF wanting to have a child. It is still painful to talk about.

"This 'childless women' comment by JD Vance has made so many waves with so many different friends of mine for its insensitivity and cruelty to women."

Newsweek has contacted Vance's office for comment via email.

Elsewhere, actress Jennifer Aniston also condemned Vance over his remarks. The Friends star has previously spoken out about trying to have children through in vitro fertilization.

"All I can say is ... Mr. Vance, I pray that your daughter is fortunate enough to bear children of her own one day," Aniston wrote on her Instagram stories. "I hope she will not need to turn to IVF as a second option. Because you are trying to take that away from her, too."

In June, Vance voted against the Right to IVF Act, which would have protected accessibility and affordability of IVF services across the U.S.

Vance has also expressed support for a national abortion ban, including in the case of rape or incest.

"It's not whether a woman should be forced to bring a child to term. It's whether a child should be allowed to live, even though the circ*mstances of that child's birth are somehow inconvenient or a problem to the society," Vance said in 2021. "The question really, to me, is about the baby."

In a recent interview with Fox News' Sean Hannity, Vance accused the Democrats of misquoting his views that a pregnancy from rape or incest was "inconvenient."

"The Democrats have completely twisted my words," Vance said. "What I did say is that we sometimes in this society see babies as inconveniences, and I absolutely want us to change that."