Trump VP Pick J. D. Vance Called for 'Outright Ban' on Adult Content in 2021

Trump VP Pick J. D. Vance Called for 'Outright Ban' on Adult Content in 2021

WASHINGTON — Presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump announced Monday that he had selected as his running mate Ohio Senator J. D. Vance, who in a 2021 interview called for an “outright ban” on porn.

As XBIZ reported in 2022, coverage of that year’s Ohio Republican senatorial race turned up an interview with a Catholic publication in which Vance called for an “outright ban” on porn.

Vance, who rose to fame as the author of the nonfiction bestseller “Hillbilly Elegy,” gave the interview in August 2021 to the MAGA-friendly, right-wing Catholic magazine Crisis. At the time, it was suggested that Vance’s own campaign was behind the renewed attention to the statements in order to court anti-porn voters following his win in the Ohio primary.

The 2021 Crisis Magazine article was headlined “The Political Path Forward: Get Married and Have Kids.”

Vance is a Harvard-educated venture capitalist who, after the success of “Hillbilly Elegy,” became a Republican politician backed and encouraged by conservative ideologue and billionaire Peter Thiel. Vance told Crisis that “the only metric that should matter” in American society is that “our birth rate continues to go down.”

“I think the combination of porn, abortion have basically created a really lonely, isolated generation that isn’t getting married, they’re not having families and they’re actually not even totally sure how to interact with each other,” he told interviewer Jessica Kramer.

When asked for his thoughts on porn and birth control and their effects on familial decline, Kramer wrote, “Vance admitted he wants to outright ban pornography.”

After the interview came to light, HuffPost’s Liz Skalka pointed out that the last time the GOP drafted an official platform, in 2016, it declared porn “a public health crisis.”

Vance's Anti-Porn Extremism No Longer Fringe Among GOP Figures

Banning porn is also a core tenet of Project 2025, a controversial initiative led by the Heritage Foundation with the objective to remake the U.S. government and American society along hard-right, Christian Nationalist lines in the event of a Donald Trump victory in November.

As XBIZ reported, much like Trump’s new vice presidential candidate, Project 2025 proposes the recriminalization of all porn production and distribution, and considers most LGBTQ+ content of any kind to be pornographic.

Earlier this month, after mainstream commentators highlighted the most inflammatory proposals of Project 2025, Trump sought to distance his campaign from the group and its extreme Christian Nationalist wish list.

Pornography, Project 2025 declares, “has no claim to First Amendment protection. Its purveyors are child predators and misogynistic exploiters of women. Their product is as addictive as any illicit drug and as psychologically destructive as any crime. Pornography should be outlawed. The people who produce and distribute it should be imprisoned. Educators and public librarians who purvey it should be classed as registered sex offenders. And telecommunications and technology firms that facilitate its spread should be shuttered.”

Reason Magazine’s Elizabeth Nolan Brown, who regularly covers free speech issues from a libertarian angle, noted that calls for blanket prohibition of anything the proponents consider “pornographic” are no longer limited to individuals but have made their way into legislative proposals in state legislatures around the country.

“We’re seeing national lawmakers like J.D. Vance and Josh Hawley talking about how we need to ban porn,” Brown wrote. “This is not a totally fringe position within today’s GOP.”

Copyright © 2025 Adnet Media. All Rights Reserved. XBIZ is a trademark of Adnet Media.
Reproduction in whole or in part in any form or medium without express written permission is prohibited.

More News

UK Lawmaker Calls for Appointment of 'Porn Minister'

Baroness Gabrielle Bertin, the Conservative member of Parliament who recently convened a new anti-pornography task force, is calling for the appointment of a “minister for porn,” according to British news outlet The Guardian.

FSC Toasts Jeffrey Douglas for 30 Years of Service

n the very same evening when the adult industry was hit hard by the Supreme Court ruling supporting Texas’ controversial age verification law, HB 1181, members of the Free Speech Coalition board, staff and supporters gathered to celebrate Jeffrey Douglas’ 30 years as board chair — a fitting reflection of his reputation as an eternal optimist.

TTS Opens UK Testing Location

Talent Testing Service (TTS) has opened a new U.K. location in Ware, Hertfordshire.

FSC: Age-Verification Laws Go Into Effect South Dakota, Georgia, Wyoming on July 1

The Free Speech Coalition (FSC) has published a statement regarding new age verification laws set to go into effect tomorrow in South Dakota, Georgia, and Wyoming.

FSC Responds to Supreme Court Decision on Texas AV Law

The Free Speech Coalition (FSC) has released a statement responding to last week's Supreme Court decision on FSC v. Paxton, the Texas age verification law.

Sex Work CEO Debuts Upgraded 'GPTease' AI Assistant

Sex Work CEO has introduced the new Canvas in-chat editing feature to its AI-powered, NSFW text generator, GPTease.

UPDATED: Supreme Court Rules Against Adult Industry in Pivotal Texas AV Case

The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday issued its decision in Free Speech Coalition v. Paxton, striking a blow against the online adult industry by ruling in support of Texas’ controversial age verification law, HB 1181.

North Carolina Passes Extreme Bill Targeting Adult Sites

The North Carolina state legislature this week ratified a bill that would impose new regulations that industry observers have warned could push adult websites and platforms to ban most adult creators and content.

Supreme Court Ruling Due Friday in FSC v. Paxton AV Case

The U.S. Supreme Court will rule on Friday in Free Speech Coalition v. Paxton, the adult industry trade association's challenge to Texas’ controversial age verification law, HB 1181.

Ofcom: More Porn Providers Commit to Age Assurance Measures

A number of adult content providers operating in the U.K. have confirmed that they plan to introduce age checks in compliance with the Online Safety Act by the July 25 deadline, according to U.K. media regulator Ofcom.

Show More