JD Vance defends ‘childless cat ladies’ comment after backlash

On Friday, Mr Vance said: “I wish her step-children and Kamala Harris and her whole family the very best. The point is not that she’s lesser. The point is that her party has pursued a set of policies that are profoundly anti-child.”

Mr Vance made similar remarks against Democrats in a 2021 speech at the Intercollegiate Studies Institute, in which he also said his criticism was not directed at those who could not have children for biological or medical reasons.

Jennifer Aniston, who has spoken publicly about her struggles while trying to have children through in-vitro fertilisation, was among the politicians and lawmakers who criticised his comments.

“I truly can’t believe that this is coming from a potential VP of the United States,” she said on Thursday.

Mr Buttigieg, who was another Democratic politician named by Mr Vance in the original interview, also addressed the comments earlier this week, speaking about adopting twins with his husband, Chasten.

“The really sad thing is he said that after Chasten and I had been through a fairly heart-breaking setback in our adoption journey,” Mr Buttigieg told CNN’s The Source programme.

Mr Vance blocked legislation earlier this year in the Senate that would guarantee access to IVF across the country.

He instead signed a letter with 48 other Republicans saying they supported IVF, but that the Democratic bill was overly broad and “false fearmongering”.