By Dawn Scotland
The Truth Reporter
“He owes all Ohioans an apology.”
This was the joint sentiment of State Representative Terrence Upchurch and State Representative Candidate Erika White during a virtual press conference Monday morning in which the Ohio Democratic Party addressed Republican Senate candidate JD Vance’s comments comparing abortion to slavery.
Black Democratic leaders, including State Representative Juanita Brent (Ohio Legislative Black Caucus President) and State Representatives Catherine Ingram, Upchurch and White, addressed the comments the conservative U.S. Senate hopeful made last fall:
“There’s something comparable between abortion and slavery, and that while the people who obviously suffer the most are those subjected to it, I think it has this morally distorting effect on the entire society,” Vance, the GOP nominee for an open Ohio Senate seat, said in an interview with the Catholic Current last October. (source: Vice.com)
In the interview Vance also referred to an Abraham Lincoln quote on slavery in his stance against abortion.
“What JD Vance is doing [comparing abortion to slavery] is rooted in racism,” said Brent. “It does not focus on the most important thing: that women will not be able to access healthcare. And that’s what abortion is: Healthcare.”
“It is infuriating that J.D. Vance compared abortion to slavery. Plain and simple, J.D. Vance doesn’t know what he’s talking about, said Upchurch. “Women having control over their own bodies is what this issue is about. And comparing abortion to slavery is dangerous and out-of-bounds.”
One month after the overturning of Roe V. Wade in which the right to abortion has been removed and access to abortions have been limited, the Democratic Party elected officials view this as an assault on women and black women.
Rep. Ingram (first vice chair of OLBC and chair of Black Maternal Health Caucus) doesn’t want Vance’s apology. “The idea that he would talk about slavery and talk about the disproportionate impact on Black females. How dare he…I don’t want his apology as a Black female in the state of Ohio…How dare you insult Black women and all women with the notion that we don’t know how to make a decision [about maternal health.”
Rep. Ingram says this is a continuation of repeated “draconian policies” of Republicans “that [for years] have been negatively impacting women period…and black women period.”
“If you cared about [the betterment of black women] you’d make sure we had a salary that was a livable wage, if you cared you would make sure there was not disparities in healthcare, if you cared you would make sure our children had day care and a good education….shame on them.”
“Comparing abortion to slavery isn’t the only out-of-touch thing J.D. Vance has said on abortion,” stated White. “He’s even called rape ‘inconvenient’ and when asked if he supports abortion in the cases of incest said that ‘two wrongs don’t make a right.'”
The party stated that “extreme rhetoric” such as this from Vance has no place in the U.S. Senate.