Robert F. Kennedy Jr., U.S. President Trump’s nominee to be secretary of Health and Human Services, testifies before a Senate Finance Committee confirmation hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S., January 29, 2025.
President Donald Trump’s decision to tap Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to lead the nation’s top health agency has elicited criticism from abortion-rights supporters and opponents. Kennedy’s confirmation hearing before the U.S. Senate Finance Committee began today at 10 a.m. ET.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services secretary oversees agencies such as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention — crucial to gathering reproductive health data across the nation — and the Food and Drug Administration, the authority that under the Biden administration approved the first-over-the-counter birth control pill and loosened restrictions on mifepristone, an abortion medication.
Where Trump HHS pick RFK Jr. stands on vaccines, abortion and LGBTQ+ issues
Former HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra directed hospital officials that received Medicare funding to offer medically necessary abortions, even in states where abortion is banned. It’s unclear what position the Trump administration will take on the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act, a federal law at the center of court battles over life-saving abortion care.
Kennedy, who is also a noted vaccine skeptic, supported abortion rights during his presidential bid, but he has been somewhat mum on the issue since joining Trump’s circle.
Before dropping out of the race for the White House, Kennedy released a video in June about his abortion stance: “Abortion has become a notoriously divisive issue in America, and many of my critics have painted me as some kind of extremist. But actually I support the emerging consensus in this country: it’s that abortion should be legal up until a certain number of weeks and restricted thereafter,” he said.
“I support the emerging consensus that abortion should be unrestricted up until a certain point. I believe that point should be when a baby is viable outside the womb,” Kennedy added. Fetal viability is around 24 weeks of pregnancy, according to the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, which also “strongly opposes policy makers defining viability or using viability as a basis to limit access to evidence-based care.”
A statement on Kennedy’s campaign site said he would support legislation to restore Roe v. Wade: “Abortion is a tragedy, but I don’t trust the government to make these decisions for Americans. I’m for choice and medical freedom. We need to trust mothers to make the best decisions. We also need to give full support to mothers who want to bring babies to term.”
In August 2023, he told NBC News that he would support a national 15-week or 21-week ban, but a spokesperson said he misheard the question.
His possible support for a federal ban has alarmed abortion-rights groups. “RFK Jr. is an unfit, unqualified extremist who cannot be trusted to protect the health, safety, and reproductive freedom of American families,” Mini Timmaraju, Reproductive Freedom for All’s president and CEO, said in a statement.
Despite his public stance on the issue, conservative senators who met with Kennedy last month said he is committed to anti-abortion policies. U.S. Sen. Josh Hawley, a Missouri Republican on the Senate Health Committee scoping the nominee on Thursday, said Kennedy wants to reinstate a ban on Title X funding going to organizations that promote abortion. And U.S. Sen. James Lankford, an Oklahoma Republican on the Senate Finance Committee, said he talked with the scion about “pro-life priorities at HHS.”
Some abortion-rights opponents are less optimistic. Advancing American Freedom, former Vice President Mike Pence’s group, has encouraged senators to vote no on Kennedy’s confirmation. The organization has also ran ads against the former presidential candidate.
“There are hundreds of decisions made every day at HHS that either lead our nation toward a respect for life or away from it — decisions about federal funding for Planned Parenthood, regulations on the abortion pill (currently accounting for three out of every five abortions), insurance coverage of abortion, and more,” Tim Chapman, the group’s president, and Marc Short, chairman of the board, said in a letter sent to Republican senators on Jan. 14.
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