Donald Trumps vice presidential pick, JD Vance, said in 2021 that we have to go to war against the idea that women can decide not to have children, suggesting that someone who focuses on building their career instead of making babies will be a sad, lonely, pathetic person.

In an interview with The Federalist in May 2021, Vance was asked what he thinks conservatives can do to encourage Americans to have more kids. He suggested cultural messaging is key.

To be a little stark about this, I think we have to go to war against the anti-child ideology that exists in our country, said Vance, who is currently the Republican senator from Ohio.

Though he generally didnt specify the gender of the childless people he was criticizing, the context of his remarks made it seem he was primarily speaking to women.

Citing a conversation that had recently unfolded on Twitter, Vance described a ridiculous effort by millennial feminist writers to talk about why there are good reasons not to have children and how some of them were glad they didnt have kids and even to encourage people who had had children to talk about why they regretted having children.

He ripped these unnamed mediocre millennial journalists and suggested that if theyre advocating for women to focus on advancing their careers over making babies, they are pathetic.

Not enough people have accepted that if they put their entire lifes meaning into their credential, into where they went to school, into what kind of job they have if you put all of your lifes meaning into that, youre going to be the sort of person who asks women to talk about how they regret having children, Vance said.

He added, Youre going to be a sad, lonely, pathetic person and youre going to know it internally.