In the recent days after Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance became Former President Donald Trump’s Vice President nominee, the 2016 film Hillbilly Elegy, starring Amy Adams and based on Vance’s New York Times bestselling autobiography under the same name, rose to the top of the Netflix Global Top 10, and for good reason. He comes with his compelling rags-to-riches America story. It’s unignorably compelling, but his story counteracts a narrative that Students for Life of America (SFLA) combats daily.  

SFLA educates the public on abortion and debunks the narratives the abortion supporters put worth, that if a child is born into poverty or dysfunction, they would be better off aborted. However, Vance’s upbringing and journey through the U.S. Marines Corps, Yale Law School, the U.S. Senate, and finally, the Vice-Presidential nominee proves abortion zealots otherwise:  

Every life has value and potential, regardless of circumstances, and shouldn’t be snuffed out by people playing God with abortion.  

As NPR succinctly and accurately summarizes, Hillbilly Elegy “details the social isolation, poverty and addiction that afflict poor white communities.”   

To add to that summarization, Hillbilly Elegy also shows how one can rise above affliction and not allow circumstances to overtake them. Growing up in an Ohio Rust Belt town for the first half of his childhood and later in Kentucky at 12 years old, Vance experienced the consequences of his mother’s dysfunction of drugs and alcohol, as well as enduring domestic abuse. His life dramatically improved when he and his sister went to live with his grandparents in Kentucky. His grandparents, “Memaw” and “Papaw,” helped him get his life back on track.   

“By the time I was 13 or 14, I was hanging out with kids who were doing drugs. And I was even starting to experiment myself,” Vance told NPR. “And it’s funny that my grandma – she was so perceptive that she recognized that I was starting to do these things and that they were becoming a problem, I think, much earlier than a lot of kids’ parents would have.”  

Vance acknowledged his grandma’s faith, saying, “Mamaw taught a very personal faith. She really loved the Christian faith. She loved God, and that was an important part of her life.”  

Sure, his book is filled with rich personal and challenging stories and policy opinions, but it does more than that. It destroys the abortion narrative, one that SFLA has been countering with our six-figure summer campaign, ALMOST ABORTED, which tells Americans the stories of remarkable people who narrowly escaped abortionists’ blades.   

Vance’s circumstances are one that the abortion Left uses to fearmonger and convince women that their children are better off dead than living in any sort of poverty.   

In fact, they’ve dedicated over $200 million this election season to abortion-related advertisements.   

Maybe they wouldn’t say it quite like that, but that’s why they advocate for abortion for preborn people who could enter a bad situation.   

But people like Melissa Ohden, who survived a saline infusion abortion in 1977 and use their voice to stand against abortion, prove otherwise. Angela Harders, who conceived a child in rape, is so grateful she called a Pregnancy Resource Center (PRC) and chose life. Josiah Pressly survived an abortion and has a deformed arm, but he speaks around the country, inspiring other young people.   

Their lives have value, and those who have been aborted in similar circumstances have the potential to do the same.   

So, though Vance’s childhood was difficult, filled with poverty, parental abuse, drug addiction, and alcoholism, he was able to rise above it and fulfill extraordinary achievements. He went on to join the U.S. Marine Corps and later attended and graduated from Yale with a law degree. With his career achievements also come his personal achievements, including meeting his wife and having two beautiful children. And now, he’s the Vice-Presidential nominee for Former President Donald Trump.   

SFLA hopes that considering his story and beliefs, Vance will be a strong advocate for life, whether he’s in or out of the White House.  

To hear more stories of those walking among us who were Almost Aborted, visit Almost Aborted | Pressured but not Persuaded. 

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