Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, wrote the introduction for a Heritage Foundation report that denounced cultural trends like lower fertility rates and served as a keynote speaker for an event supporting the report, The New York Times reported Tuesday, the latest in a string of reports tying the vice presidential candidate to the Heritage Foundation as the Trump campaign tries to distance itself from its “Project 2025” agenda.
Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, speaks to attendees at the International Association of Fire Fighters ... [+]
Vance penned the introduction for the Heritage Foundation’s 2017 Index of Culture and Opportunity and served as the keynote speaker for a July 2017 event in support of it, though a spokesperson for the Heritage Foundation told the Times Vance had “no role in producing or approving the contents” of the report.
The report, which the right-wing think tank previously released yearly, notes a variety of cultural and economic trends and marks whether they’re on the “right track” or “wrong track,” and is accompanied by a series of essays on the various trends.
Among the trends that are listed as being on the “wrong track” are the marriage rate, total fertility rate and number of single-parent households, calling a rise in unwed births a “tragedy” and “encourag[ing] marriage as a way to help both parents and children flourish more.”
In a piece decrying the falling fertility rate, founder of the anti-abortion Center for Bioethics and Culture Network Jennifer Lahl criticizes women having children at older ages and “spending a large portion of their most fertile years building their careers,” as well as in vitro fertilization and using egg donors or surrogates—writing, “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.”
Essays also call for abortion to become “unthinkable” in the U.S. and celebrate declining sexual rates among teenagers, claiming “a greater number of sexual partners is negatively correlated with future marital stability, emotional health, and other life outcomes” and decrying the “ideology of the sexual revolution.”
Authors also decried a reliance on welfare benefits like the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and the decline in workforce participation; essays call for work requirements to be imposed to receive federal benefits, claim federal disability benefits “inadvertently incentivize some working-age adults to subsist on these support programs” instead of getting jobs, call public housing programs “misguided” and argue hunger “is a great motivator for people who are able to work to find work.”
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In his introduction to the 2017 index, Vance—who had not yet entered into politics and was then best known as the author of memoir “Hillbilly Elegy”—praised the report as being “admirable … for its willingness to house culture and opportunity under the same intellectual roof” and said data illustrates that “the American Dream is in crisis.” Vance did not comment directly on many of the most controversial opinions outlined in the report, though he did argue “the prevalence of single-parent families” hinders upward mobility and “declining participation in civic institutions like churches destroys social capital and eliminates pathways to the middle class in the process.” In his keynote address for the Heritage Foundation, Vance emphasized “recognizing the importance of culture”—like the fertility, marriage and abortion rates—and its impact on upward mobility is what he believed was “so important about this index.”
Vance spokesperson Luke Schroeder told the Times the now-senator has “long made clear that he supports IVF and does not agree with every opinion in this seven-year-old report, which features a range of unique views from dozens of conservative thinkers,” and criticized the publication for “attacking Senator Vance for the views of other individuals.”
The Times report comes as both Vance and the Heritage Foundation have come under fire from the left ahead of the November election. The Heritage Foundation spearheaded “Project 2025,” a multi-pronged policy blueprint proposing a total overhaul of the executive branch if former President Donald Trump retakes the White House. Trump has strongly denounced the agenda as the left has ramped up attacks on its controversial proposals—like restricting abortion, getting rid of several federal agencies and replacing civil servants with political appointees—though reports have detailed how Trump has a number of ties to the Heritage Foundation and has supported its policies in the past. Vance has even closer ties to the right-wing group: The vice presidential candidate has faced criticism for writing the foreword to foundation president Kevin Roberts’ new book, and Roberts said the organization was “really rooting” for Vance to be named Trump’s running mate. Separate from his ties to the Heritage Foundation, Vance has also repeatedly made news as past controversial comments of his have resurfaced, such as him denouncing “childless cat ladies.”
While Vance did not comment on many of the specific opinions outlined in the 2017 report, they do largely fall in line with comments the senator has made elsewhere. Vance has repeatedly criticized childless Americans as being “miserable” and not having the same stake in the country’s future as those with children, and has proposed policies like universal healthcare coverage for childbirth that support the 2017 report’s push for higher birth rates. He has also repeatedly expressed his opposition to abortion—though he has said he now backs Trump’s view of leaving the issue up to the states—and has voiced support for a Hungarian policy that rewards couples for staying married. In line with the 2017 report’s call for more parents to be married, Vance has also made comments critical of no-fault divorce, arguing in 2021 that “children suffered” because of more relaxed views around divorce that started in the 1970s and as couples have increasingly viewed marriage as a “basic contract.” The senator has also expressed views that echo the Heritage Foundation’s criticism of declining labor rates—particularly among men—claiming in 2021 that “moms and dads really are different” and that the U.S. losing “a lot of stable male employment” was “catastrophic” for the American family.