From Rod Dreher to Eric Metaxas, Tony Perkins, and Charlie Kirk, J.D. Vance has amassed quite the following among those who see him as the new face of “religious populism.” It’s an interesting accolade for someone whose claim to fame is being a champion of conservativism while simultaneously endorsing the very measures that undermine them.

In a recent interview with NBC, Vance endorses the abortion pill mifepristone, which reveals a curious contradiction—one that his evangelical supporters seem more than willing to overlook in their quest for a political savior.

Arguing like a leftist, Vance offers not just his support for the abortion pill, but an alternative to anti-abortion legislation altogether. Similar to the way leftists offer social justice as a means to ending abortion, Vance argues that instead of pushing for anti-abortion legislation, we should instead “make it easier and more affordable for young women and parents to have families” by lowering housing costs and eliminating “those surprise medical bills that so many families see after they have a baby.”

This effectively makes unborn children hostages to social policy, whether it be from the right or the left. It sends the message that if one wants to save the lives of unborn children, then support these various social justice legislations rather than make the systematic murder of these children legal.

Imagine making arguments like this around the lives of three-year-olds, or teenagers, or grandparents. Imagine believing that the Supreme Court had the authority to grant the right to kill one of these other classes of people and the federal government had no duty to step in. Imagine arguing that it is a “states’ rights” issue while states are systematically thumbing their nose at the Constitutionally-protected God-given right to life.

JD Vance is no evangelical hero—he’s just another pragmatist with no real conviction in the lives of fellow Image-bearers.