Robert F. Kennedy Jr., President Trump’s decide to guide the U.S. Division of Well being and Human Providers (HHS), has been robust to tie down to 1 stance on abortion. For many of his profession, he has supported it—in stark distinction to the views of many distinguished figures within the present Administration.
However in a Senate affirmation listening to on Jan. 29, Kennedy clarified his place on abortion. “I serve on the pleasure of the President,” he stated in response to a query about his abortion beliefs. “I’m going to implement his insurance policies.”
This is what to find out about Kennedy’s previous and present stance on abortion.
What Kennedy has stated previously about abortion
Kennedy, a former Democrat, has lengthy advocated for ladies’s reproductive rights and supported a lady’s proper to decide on whether or not or not she will get an abortion. As a presidential candidate in Might 2024, Kennedy described each abortion as a “tragedy” however stated the choice needs to be left as much as ladies, going so far as to say this freedom to decide on ought to lengthen to full-term pregnancies.
Shortly after, in an extended submit on X, he clarified his assertion however primarily continued to again abortion. “I help the rising consensus that abortion needs to be unrestricted up till a sure level. I imagine that time needs to be when the newborn is viable outdoors the womb. Due to this fact I’d enable acceptable restrictions on abortion within the remaining months of being pregnant, simply as Roe v. Wade did.”
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In a video he posted to Fb in June, he additional defined that his stance on late-term abortion, particularly, had developed. He initially believed that the one motive a lady would get an abortion within the third trimester is that if the being pregnant put her life in danger or the newborn had a deadly situation. “I don’t assume a bureaucrat or a choose is healthier geared up than the newborn’s personal mom to resolve what to do in these circumstances,” he stated.
“I had been assuming that just about all late-term abortions had been such circumstances, however I’ve realized that my assumption was fallacious,” he wrote on X. “Generally, ladies abort wholesome, viable late-term fetuses. These circumstances of purely ‘elective’ late-term abortion are very upsetting. As soon as the newborn is viable outdoors the womb, it ought to have rights and it deserves society’s safety.”
His place on abortion now
On the affirmation listening to, Kennedy caught to a special chorus: “I agree with President Trump that each abortion is a tragedy,” he stated a number of occasions. “I agree with him that we can’t be an ethical nation if there are 1.2 million abortions a 12 months,” he additionally stated. “I agree with him that states ought to management abortion.”
The statements mirror Kennedy’s altering place as he makes an attempt to appease Trump’s conservative anti-abortion supporters.
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Quite a few Democratic senators identified his previous pro-choice place within the listening to. “I’ve by no means seen any main politician flip on that challenge fairly as shortly as you probably did when Trump requested you to change into HHS Secretary,” stated Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont.
Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, a Democrat from Nevada, requested if a pregnant lady with a life-threatening bleed ought to be capable of get an emergency abortion even when her state bans them. “You’d agree, additionally as an lawyer, that federal regulation protects her proper to that emergency care. Appropriate?” Kennedy responded after an extended pause, “I don’t know.”
A conflict with conservatives and altering stances
Kennedy’s views on abortion have put him at odds with extra conservative Republicans, who’ve efficiently instituted abortion bans in 13 states. The anti-abortion agenda outlined in Undertaking 2025—from which President Trump has already drawn for a lot of of actions early in his second time period—requires an finish to abortion drugs, which is how most ladies within the U.S. get abortions.
Involved that new insurance policies might prohibit or take away that entry, some suppliers have reported spikes in these requests after Trump was elected President in November.
However Kennedy made it clear that on abortion treatment, too, he would defer to Trump to tell his new stance. “President Trump has requested me to review the security of mifepristone,” Kennedy stated through the listening to—even though the treatment has already been reviewed and permitted by the U.S. Meals and Drug Administration as secure and efficient. “He has not but taken a stand on the right way to regulate it. No matter he does, I’ll implement these insurance policies, and I’ll work with this committee make these insurance policies make sense.”
