JD Vance Says It’s “Deranged” to Avoid Having Children Because of Climate Change

Young people who choose not to have children because of concerns around climate change are “deranged,” “bizarre,” and “crazy,” Republican vice presidential candidate JD Vance said in an interview published on Saturday. His remarks, made during a taping of the New York Times podcast, The Interview, were intended to clarify his previous comments about “childless cat ladies,” which he acknowledged were “dumb.”

“What I was definitely trying to illustrate—ultimately, in a very inarticulate way—is that I do think that our country has become almost pathologically anti-child,” Vance, who is seemingly obsessed with whether people have children, said, before taking aim specifically at pandemic-era mask mandates, adults who complain about noisy kids in public spaces and young people who choose not to have children because of the changing climate.

Vance had harsh words for this last group, in particular.

“You know, when I’ve used this word sociopathic?” Vance said. “Like, that, I think, is a very deranged idea: the idea that you shouldn’t have a family because of concerns over climate change.”

That assertion drew a quick follow-up from host Lulu Garcia-Navarro, who stopped Vance to clarify whether he believed that “women who don’t have children because they’re worried about climate change” were “sociopathic.”

“I think that is a bizarre way of thinking about the future,” Vance answered. “… If your political philosophy is saying, ‘don’t do that because of concerns over climate change?’ Yeah, I think that’s a really, really crazy way to think about the world.”

“I don’t think that’s a reasonable perspective,” Vance added, moments later. “If your political ideas motivate you to not have children, then that is a bizarre way of looking at the world.”

Vance’s comments are at odds with many American young adults, who are indeed choosing to have children in smaller numbers. In a 2022 ABC/Ipsos poll, roughly a quarter of US adults ages 18 to 45 said climate change made them think twice about having biological kids; a similar share said the climate crisis prompted them to consider having fewer children. Sociologists have argued that these figures reflect a sense of widespread unease and pessimism about the future: Most Americans, especially young people, believe the harms from climate change will worsen over their lifetimes.

Vance and former president Donald Trump, for their part, have both questioned the validity of climate science and downplayed climate concerns. During his presidency, Trump rolled back more than 125 policies meant to protect the environment and lower emissions.