Robert F. Kennedy Jr., while being considered for the position of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary, confidently reassured Republican Senator James Lankford of Oklahoma during his confirmation hearing that his approach to abortion policy would align with that of President Donald Trump. Despite having previously shown support for abortion rights, even suggesting it should be allowed full-term and overseen federally during his presidential campaign, Kennedy appeared to shift his stance. At the Senate Finance Committee hearing, he made it clear that he intended to “implement” Trump’s pro-life policies, which emphasize transferring abortion regulation authority to individual states.
Kennedy passionately expressed his alignment with Trump’s perspectives on Title X, asserting, “I’m going to support President Trump’s policies on Title X. I agree with President Trump that every abortion is a tragedy. I agree with him that we cannot be a moral nation if we have 1.2 million abortions a year.” He praised Trump’s commitment to ending late-term abortions and ensuring that conscience exemptions are protected, pledging to remove federal funding for abortions both domestically and internationally, as articulated in the guidelines of Title X. This stands in contrast to former President Joe Biden’s administration’s decision in October 2021 to revoke a rule that prohibited Title X funds from being funneled to health centers that conducted or referred abortions.
When queried by Lankford about the rights of healthcare providers to refuse procedures they find morally objectionable, Kennedy provided a straightforward perspective. “Yeah, I mean the first thing that occurs to me when you ask that question is, what patient would want somebody doing a surgery on them that believes — that surgery’s against their conscience being forced to perform that? I don’t know anybody who would want to have that, have a doctor performing a surgery that the doctor is morally opposed to,” he elaborated.
Kennedy further highlighted the ability of his family, despite being divided on the issue of abortion, to maintain respectful discourse. He aspired for such mutual understanding on a national scale, asserting, “We need to welcome diversity in this country. We need to respect diversity and we need to respect each other when we have different opinions and not force our opinions on other people.”
Addressing the question of transparency regarding the potential side effects of “the chemical abortion drug,” Kennedy expressed his commitment to safety and open communication. He emphasized, “Yeah, I mean it’s against everything we believe in in this country, that patients or doctors should not be reporting adverse events.
We need to know what adverse events are. We need to understand the safety of every drug, Mifepristone and every other drug.” He stated that while President Trump had not yet taken a definitive stance on Mifepristone, he had asked Kennedy to investigate its safety alongside other drugs, tasking NIH and FDA with thorough investigations.