In 2017, the Heritage Foundation put out a report mourning declining fertility, premarital sex, IVF, and the welfare state. JD Vance wrote the introduction.
The “Index of Culture and Opportunity” includes 29 essays from conservative journalists, politicians, clergy members, and academics, who extensively cover the importance of the traditional American family. Vance calls the volume “admirable” in his introduction and celebrates it for demonstrating that the “proper conversation about culture will never be used as a weapon against those whom Christ described as ‘the least of these.'”
Vance had not entered politics at the time the report came out — in the list of authors, he’s described merely as “a partner at Revolution LLC and the author of Hillbilly Elegy” — but had evidently already started thinking about the pro-natalist comments haunting his bid for vice president.
Many of the report’s authors seem aligned with Vance’s now well-known concerns about fertility and family, at least broadly. In the section entitled “Culture,” six of ten articles have to do with either marriage, child-rearing, or abortion.
In her piece on the importance of marriage, Helen M. Alvaré, a professor at George Mason University’s law school, blames “cohabitation, premarital sexual relations, premarital childbearing, and pornography” for rising divorce rates.
“Pornography is also increasingly associated with relationship troubles, including greater divorce risks — interestingly, especially if married women watch it,” she writes.
Alvaré also regrets that Americans have more premarital sexual partners now than in earlier decades and argues that “serial premarital sexual partnerships also undermine the opportunity for lifelong marriage.” Marrying later is also harmful — according to her, the risks accumulate for those who tie the knot after 30.
Vance is facing particular scrutiny for his comments on fertility. After his “childless cat ladies” quip went viral, other instances, like when he called Democrats without kids “childless sociopaths,” started gaining traction and hurting his already abysmal polling numbers. Jennifer Lahl, the founder of the Center for Bioethics and Culture Network, writes about that very issue in her article.
Lahl attributes declining fertility in part to later marriage and pregnancy, which is itself linked to the fact that “more women have been pursuing higher education and graduate degrees and spending a large portion of their most fertile years building their careers.”
When celebrities have children past the age of 40 and companies include benefits like egg freezing, “women are lured into the belief that they can have children whenever they are finally ready,” Lahl continues. She calls egg freezing a “scheme” and says that women who are surrogates “are exploited for their healthy reproductive capacities.”
Other articles lament porn and premarital sex, such as one that argues we must publicly end the “sexual revolution” because “a flourishing civil society is one built on strong marriages and happy families and that those in turn are built on personal virtue and an unwavering commitment to sexual integrity.”
A piece entitled “Mom and Dad: Better Opportunity Together” calls the rising rate of “unwed births” a “tragedy” and argues that “the ideal situation for any child is growing up with the mother and father who brought that child into this world.”
The report also deals with economic questions, particularly welfare. Writing about how the welfare state runs counter to his understanding of human nature, the columnist Cal Thomas calls welfare “the ultimate poison that has produced an entitlement mentality.”
Vance’s ties to the Heritage Foundation, which is the group behind Project 2025, run deep — deeper than his roots as a politician. His introduction in the 2017 report represents one of his earliest instances of public support for socially conservative values, the New York Times reported.
Trump is trying to separate himself from Project 2025, which Democrats have latched onto in their campaign strategy. He recently said he wants to make IVF free for all Americans, though provided no details on how the expensive proposal would work. Vance is having an even harder time creating daylight between himself and the organization. The senator is not embracing his involvement in the 2017 volume wholeheartedly.
“Senator Vance has long made clear that he supports I.V.F. and does not agree with every opinion in this seven-year-old report, which features a range of unique views from dozens of conservative thinkers,” Vance spokesperson Luke Schroeder told Business Insider, repeating the statement he gave to The Times.
The Heritage Foundation did not immediately respond to Business Insider’s request for comment, but a spokesperson told the Times that Vance was not involved in “producing or approving the contents of the 2017 Index of Culture and Opportunity.” Even so, the report likely won’t make it any easier for the vice presidential hopeful to shake the electorate’s focus on familial comments.
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