When Donald Trump chose JD Vance to be his right-hand man, he probably didn’t imagine he would be helping an embroidery queen fight for women’s reproductive rights.
The story begins with a social media post that spread like wildfire, claiming that Republican vice presidential nominee Vance had penned a rather unusual anecdote in his memoir Hillbilly Elegy. The post claimed Vance had confessed to a passionate encounter with a couch (maybe it’s a leather fetish? No kink-shaming!). While the claim was quickly debunked, the internet, being the internet, couldn’t resist running with the joke.
Enter our crafty protagonist, a TikTok user known as @chantal_makes_stuff – real name Chantal Strasburger. Seizing the moment, she created a T-shirt design that nods to the viral meme, with the phrase “I did not have sectional relations with that couch” embroidered alongside a (seductive?) couch.
Strasburger’s design quickly went viral, and the T-shirt is currently out of stock, which means her sense of humor aligns with her entrepreneurial spirit. However, this isn’t just about laughs or the profits. To demonstrate her civic calling, Strasburger is donating a portion of the proceeds from these cheeky T-shirts to The Yellowhammer Fund. As the organization is committed to abortion advocacy and reproductive justice in the Deep South, this is like sprinkling salt in Vance’s wounded MAGA ego.
JD Vance has inadvertently helped create a pro-choice T-Shirt
Following the overturning of Roe v. Wade in 2022, many states in the Deep South have implemented near-total bans on abortion. For instance, in Mississippi, abortion is banned after conception, affecting approximately 669,000 women of reproductive age. The landscape of abortion access has become highly uneven, with the South experiencing significant restrictions while coastal states maintain robust access to abortion clinics. That means organizations such as The Yellowhammer Fund need all the support they can get.
Vance, now Trump’s running mate, has been a vocal opponent of abortion rights. He has described abortion as “the first political issue I can ever remember caring about” and has equated it with murder. The couch boy has consistently voted to defend the lives of the unborn and infants at the cost of women’s freedom and autonomy. Previous to 2022, Vance even spoke against abortion in cases of rape and incest, but he has softened his stance a little since he began to have bigger political ambitions.
All these pieces fall together in a demonstration of cosmic irony. Vance becoming a public figure – hence the whole couch meme – has inadvertently weaponized Strasburger’s top direct funds to pro-choice organizations.