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Reproductive Rights Explainers
Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s Anti-Abortion Record
TO: Interested Parties FROM: Reproductive Freedom for AllDATE: November 22, 2024
President-elect Donald Trump is stacking his incoming administration with anti-abortion extremists he trusts to carry out his agenda—including Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).
The secretary of HHS oversees the implementation of programs and initiatives impacting the health and well-being of people across our country and has the power to significantly impact access to sexual and reproductive health care. They also manage essential public health programs like the Title X Family Planning Program and Medicaid, in addition to handling all complaints and investigations of emergency abortion care denials under the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act.
With Kennedy potentially at the helm of the agency, reproductive freedom faces an existential threat. Trump nominated him precisely because he knows he will carry out his extremist agenda, including by implementing Project 2025—and Kennedy’s record of hostility towards abortion shows he’ll have no problem doing it.
KENNEDY’S ANTI-ABORTION RECORD
RFK Jr. previously signaled—clearly and unequivocally—his support for a national abortion ban, earning the praise of anti-abortion groups. Like Trump and many other anti-abortion Republicans, he only disingenuously backtracked realizing how out-of-touch his stance was with voters. It’s hardly the only instance of RFK Jr. signaling his opposition to abortion and reproductive freedom:
- During his presidential run, RFK Jr. repeatedly voiced his hostility toward abortion by saying “every abortion is a tragedy” and that he “is not happy about abortions.” He also previously referred to himself as “pro-life.”
- RFK Jr. enlisted Nicole Shanahan, a vocal opponent of IVF who said that the assisted fertility treatment was “one of the biggest lies that’s being told about women’s health today,” as his running mate.
- When asked by Catholic media outlet EWTN about whether he “is concerned about the abortion pill” and its side effects, RFK Jr. affirmed that he was “worried about every pharmaceutical drug,” continuing that “ we ought to know what the side effects are, what the risks are, what the benefits and that everyone should have informed choice and we don’t have that now.”
- While running for president, he hired Angela Stanton King, an anti-abortion activist, to advise his campaign—including on abortion—leading him to deploy disinformation.
ANTI-ABORTION GROUPS LOBBYING RFK JR.—AND HE’S “OPEN TO” THEM
Anti-abortion groups are already seeking to ensure Kennedy as an ally, and according to a recent report from Politico, a source “close to the Trump transition” said he “is open to their entreaties.” Those groups are demanding “that he appoint an anti-abortion stalwart to a senior position in HHS and that he promise privately to them and publicly during his confirmation hearing to restore anti-abortion policies from the first Trump administration,” the report continued.
Anti-abortion groups are also calling on RFK Jr. to signal his loyalty to their cause by voicing his support for reinstating medically unnecessary restrictions on mifepristone, a safe and effective medication used for early abortion and miscarriage care, according to another report from CBS News. Students for Life of America similarly told Rolling Stone that they are seeking to appeal to Kennedy based on his fear-mongering about chemicals in the water supply to convince him to pull abortion pills off the market.
TRUMP’S HHS IS AN URGENT THREAT TO REPRODUCTIVE FREEDOM
During his first term in office, Trump deployed HHS to decimate access to reproductive health care, including abortion and contraception. His administration instated the domestic gag rule, an anti-abortion policy that decimated the Title X family planning network by forcing many health care providers who provided abortion out of the program. The policy prohibited Title X providers from referring for abortion care, even when patients requested the information. Trump’s HHS also rolled back the Affordable Care Act’s contraception coverage—and that’s just the tip of the iceberg.
With Kennedy—or any Trump appointee—at the helm, our reproductive freedom is in urgent danger. Trump hand-picked his cabinet because he knew his nominees are loyalists who will carry out his dangerous agenda without question.
As Katie Miller, a spokesperson for the Trump-Vance transition, told Fox News, “Mr. Kennedy has every intention of supporting President Trump’s agenda to the fullest extent. This is President Trump’s administration that Robert F. Kennedy has been asked to serve in, and he will carry out the policies Americans overwhelmingly voted for in President Trump’s historic victory.”
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For over 50 years, Reproductive Freedom for All (formerly NARAL Pro-Choice America) has fought to protect and advance reproductive freedom at the federal and state levels—including access to abortion care, birth control, pregnancy and post-partum care, and paid family leave—for everybody. Reproductive Freedom for All is powered by its more than 4 million members from every state and congressional district in the country, representing the 8 in 10 Americans who support legal abortion.