The nomination of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to lead the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has rankled some abortion opponents, who are concerned about his past statements expressing a liberal position on reproductive rights.
Kennedy, a former Democrat who ran for president as an independent before backing Trump, has said in multiple interviews that while he’s “personally pro-life,” he does not believe it’s the government’s role to interfere with a woman’s right to terminate her pregnancy. As recently as May, he said a woman should be able to have an abortion when she’s full term, although he later walked that statement back and announced support for some restrictions on abortion.
Pro-life groups that spoke to Fox News Digital expressed optimism about Trump’s election win, noting his previous administration’s strong support for their cause. But they are seeking clarification from Kennedy on how he would use the sweeping powers at HHS to shape regulations on abortion pills and control funding to abortion providers like Planned Parenthood.
“He certainly needs to change his position on abortion just in order to be consistent,” said Shawn Carney, co-founder and CEO of 40 Days for Life. “Look, if RFK wants to take away our Fruity Pebbles and our Cool Ranch Doritos — both of which are great American institutions — because they’re unhealthy, you can’t do that and also deny health care to a baby girl who survives an abortion or support abortion at 40 weeks.”
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Robert F. Kennedy Jr. visits “The Story With Martha MacCallum” at Fox News Channel Studios on Sept. 25, 2024, in New York City. (Jason Mendez/Getty Images)
Kennedy did not respond to requests for comment for this story. His nomination was met with outright opposition from some pro-lifers, including former Vice President Mike Pence.
“The Trump-Pence administration was unapologetically pro-life for our four years in office. There are hundreds of decisions made at HHS every day that either lead our nation toward a respect for life or away from it, and HHS under our administration always stood for life,” Pence said in a lengthy statement on the website for his Advancing American Freedom nonprofit Friday.
He called Kennedy’s nomination a “departure from the pro-life record of our administration,” citing Kennedy’s past pro-choice statements.
“If confirmed, RFK, Jr. would be the most pro-abortion Republican appointed secretary of HHS in modern history,” Pence wrote.
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The Department of Health and Human Services has a “major impact on abortion access,” said healthcare attorney Harry Nelson, founder and managing partner at Nelson Hardiman, LLP.
The Food and Drug Administration, a sub-agency of HHS, has direct power over the availability of the abortion pill, Mifepristone. Known by the brand name Mifeprex, the pill is taken with misoprostol in a two-drug regimen that first deprives an unborn baby of hormones it needs to stay alive and then causes cramps and contractions to expel the dead fetus from its mother’s womb.
The Biden administration has taken several actions to deregulate and increase access to Mifepristone by making it available via telemedicine nationally. Pro-life groups have fought in court to have that deregulation overturned.
“Their efforts earlier this year failed at the Supreme Court but having leadership atop FDA who are sympathetic would be a major impact and make this the biggest abortion issue in the country,” said Nelson.
Mifepristone, also known as RU-486, is a medication typically used in combination with misoprostol to bring about a medical abortion during pregnancy and manage early miscarriage. The Biden administration has taken several steps to deregulate the abortion pill. (Soumyabrata Roy/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
HHS also oversees grant funding via Title X and other programs for abortion providers like Planned Parenthood. Pro-life activists have urged the incoming Trump administration to defund these providers. Additionally, HHS is responsible for enforcing federal law that requires emergency care to stabilize patients, including women with health risks from pregnancy. The Biden administration has sought to use the law, called EMTALA, to require states to permit doctors to administer emergency abortions when the life of the mother is at risk.
“It will be interesting to see RFK’s impact and also how the Trump team around him change things,” Nelson said. “I don’t think this is an issue RFK is going to be personally passionate about. The Pro-life hardliners are going to be gunning for Mifepristone, and that will be the primary battle to watch.”
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Trump welcomes Kennedy to the stage at a Turning Point Action campaign rally at the Gas South Arena on Oct. 23, 2024 in Duluth, Ga. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
Kennedy has said that his position on the issue has evolved since learning about the rates of elective late-term abortions.
During an interview with comedians Shane Gillis and Matt McCusker in May, Kennedy acknowledged, “My position on abortion was that it should always be a woman’s choice right up to the very end.”
“In the ninth month, you’re basically killing a child, right? My presumption was that […] no woman is going to deliberately carry a child for nine months, then two days before it’s born, abort it. Who would do that?”
However, he claimed to have changed his view after examining data regarding late-term abortions and finding out they are more frequent than he once believed.
“But then I learned I was wrong, that there are actually a huge amount, comparatively, of elective abortions at that time,” he said during the interview. “And my belief at that time is that at that time you have a wholly formed, viable child and the state has some interest in protecting that baby.”
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Some pro-lifers are giving Kennedy the benefit of the doubt because they trust Trump’s judgment. In his first term, Trump kept his campaign promise to nominate pro-life judges to the U.S. Supreme Court, which overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022 after nearly a half-century of anti-abortion activism.
“There’s no question that we need a pro-life HHS secretary, and of course, we have concerns about Robert F. Kennedy Jr. I believe that no matter who is HHS secretary, baseline policies set by President Trump during his first term will be re-established,” Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life President Marjorie Dannenfelser said.
Brian Burch, president of CatholicVote, said Kennedy is not “easily labeled.”
“He has publicly admitted his comments on unlimited abortion were mistaken. He has also said abortion is a tragedy, and that we must help as many women as possible that want to keep their children,” Burch told Fox News Digital.
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Kennedy looks on as Trump speaks at a campaign rally Friday, Aug. 23, 2024, in Glendale, Ariz. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)
Kennedy teamed up with CatholicVote days before Election Day in a TV ad urging Catholics to support Trump that aired in swing state Pennsylvania. Burch told Semafor that the collaboration came months after Kennedy talked about his abortion views with his group and after they agreed “we need to be spending an equal amount of money on helping women choose to keep their child as we are on helping them to get abortions.”
In comments to Fox News Digital, Burch praised Kennedy’s advocacy against “Big Pharma, Big Food and Big Government,” saying these are issues the pro-life movement can readily work on with the Trump administration if Kennedy is confirmed by the Senate.
“There is no denying that RFK is not your traditional pro-life advocate. For this reason, we will vigorously oppose any HHS effort to expand or promote abortion or abortion funding. But we are also confident that the reforms he is proposing will lead to a rethinking of the entire food, medical, and drug industry that enables our tragic abortion-minded culture,” Burch said.
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Kristan Hawkins, president of Students for Life Action, told Fox News Digital that Kennedy “was the only presidential candidate who admitted he was wrong about abortion in America and changed his mind.”
“Whoever ends up at HHS, we are going to want to talk with them about how HHS has been weaponized with prejudice against pro-life Americans, including pro-life hospitals, and for more abortion,” Hawkins said.
Still, others remain skeptical.
“I don’t think anybody has confidence that RFK would undo some of the Biden abortion policies. He hasn’t shown that he has publicly supported abortion through 40 weeks,” said Carney. “I think many would say this is his only flaw.”
Fox News Digital’s Timothy H.J. Nerozzi contributed to this report.
