Former Vice President Mike Pence’s organization, Advancing American Freedom, is calling for senators to vote against Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.’s nomination for Health and Human Services secretary over his past support for abortion access.
The letter from the conservative advocacy group Advancing American Freedom, first reported Wednesday by Daily Wire, criticized Kennedy as being “pro-abortion,” specifically over his past support for abortions later in pregnancy. This position is “completely out of step with the strong, pro-life record of the first Trump Administration,” the group wrote.
“While RFK Jr. has made certain overtures to pro-life leaders that he would be mindful of their concerns at HHS,” the AAF said in their letter, “there is little reason for confidence at this time.”
HHS plays a big role in abortion access nationwide. Under its jurisdiction lies funding for Planned Parenthood and potential access or restrictions to the abortion drug mifepristone. As secretary, the enforcement of Trump’s policies surrounding abortion access would fall directly under Kennedy’s purview.
But Kennedy’s record on abortion is all over the place, leaving him facing a complicated confirmation process. During his own presidential campaign, Kennedy at first seemed to support a ban after the first 15 weeks of pregnancy, but then he reversed that stance and emphasized “a woman’s right to choose” and said he would back legislation that restored the protections from Roe v. Wade, which was overturned during Trump’s first term.
In May, he gave a full-throated support of abortion access, “even if it’s full-term,” only to walk back the comment in a post on X. “I support the emerging consensus that abortion should be unrestricted up until a certain point,” he wrote.
AAF isn’t the first to raise red flags over Kennedy’s record on abortion. Pence himself, a staunch opponent of abortion, already voiced his disapproval of Kennedy’s nomination back in November, saying if confirmed, Kennedy would be “the most pro-abortion Republican appointed secretary of HHS in modern history.”
Since his nomination, Kennedy has been courting abortion opponents on the Hill like Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), who he met with in December. Hawley posted on X that Kennedy would support reinstating Trump’s anti-abortion policies, including the Mexico City policy which blocks federal funding for NGOs that advocate for abortion or provide abortion services.
