From the worst inflationary crisis in 40 years to international conflagrations in Israel and Ukraine, Vice President Kamala Harris trails behind former President Donald Trump in polling on every policy issue except for one, abortion. Naturally, the CBS anchors trying to assist Gov. Tim Walz (D-MN) during the vice presidential debate allowed the Democratic running mate to open the section on abortion by falsely accusing Republican running mate Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH) of proposing a “registry of pregnancies” and bans on contraception and fertility treatments. The Ohio senator shut down Walz’s smears. Even better, he and Trump concurrently claimed the moderate mantle on the abortion issue, illustrating the extreme position Walz clung to with little pushback from the moderators.

“One of the things that changed [in my abortion position] is in the state of Ohio, we had a referendum in 2023 and the people of Ohio voted overwhelmingly, by the way, against my position,” said Vance of his former opposition to a state referendum that legalized abortion through 21 weeks of pregnancy. “And I think that what I learned from that is that we’ve got to do a better job at winning back people’s trust. So many young women would love to have families, so many young women also see an unplanned pregnancy as something that’s going to destroy their livelihood, destroy their education, destroy their relationships, and we have got to earn people’s trust back, and that’s why Donald Trump and I are committed to pursuing pro-family policies, making child care more accessible, making fertility treatments more accessible, because we’ve got to do a better job at that, and that’s what real leadership is a response.”