{"id":4944,"date":"2025-01-15T19:46:07","date_gmt":"2025-01-15T19:46:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/mike-pences-organization-calls-on-senators-to-vote-down-rfk-jr-nomination-over-abortion-record\/"},"modified":"2025-01-15T19:46:07","modified_gmt":"2025-01-15T19:46:07","slug":"mike-pences-organization-calls-on-senators-to-vote-down-rfk-jr-nomination-over-abortion-record","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/mike-pences-organization-calls-on-senators-to-vote-down-rfk-jr-nomination-over-abortion-record\/","title":{"rendered":"Mike Pence\u2019s organization calls on senators to vote down RFK Jr. nomination over abortion record"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Former Vice President Mike Pence\u2019s organization, Advancing American Freedom, is calling for senators to vote against Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.\u2019s nomination for Health and Human Services secretary over his past support for abortion access.<\/p>\n

The letter from the conservative advocacy group Advancing American Freedom, first reported Wednesday by Daily Wire,<\/a> criticized Kennedy as being \u201cpro-abortion,\u201d specifically over his past support for abortions later in pregnancy. This position is \u201ccompletely out of step with the strong, pro-life record of the first Trump Administration,\u201d the group wrote.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile RFK Jr. has made certain overtures to pro-life leaders that he would be mindful of their concerns at HHS,\u201d the AAF said in their letter, \u201cthere is little reason for confidence at this time.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\u2019s policies surrounding abortion access would fall directly under Kennedy\u2019s purview.<\/p>\n

But Kennedy\u2019s 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<\/a>of pregnancy, but then he reversed that stance and emphasized \u201ca woman\u2019s right to choose\u201d and said he would back legislation<\/a> that restored the protections from Roe v. Wade<\/i>, which was overturned during Trump\u2019s first term.<\/p>\n

In May, he gave a full-throated support of abortion access, \u201ceven if it\u2019s full-term,\u201d<\/a> only to walk back the comment in a post on X.<\/a>\u201cI support the emerging consensus that abortion should be unrestricted up until a certain point,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n

AAF isn\u2019t the first to raise red flags over Kennedy\u2019s record on abortion. Pence himself, a staunch opponent of abortion, already voiced his disapproval<\/a>of Kennedy\u2019s nomination back in November, saying if confirmed, Kennedy would be \u201cthe most pro-abortion Republican appointed secretary of HHS in modern history.\u201d<\/p>\n

Since his nomination, Kennedy has been courting abortion opponents on Blue Light News like Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), who he met with in December. Hawley posted on X<\/a> that Kennedy would support reinstating Trump\u2019s anti-abortion policies, including the Mexico City policy which blocks federal funding for NGOs that advocate for abortion or provide abortion services.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Former Vice President Mike Pence\u2019s organization, Advancing American Freedom, is calling for senators to vote against Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.\u2019s 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 \u201cpro-abortion,\u201d […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4944","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-congress"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4944","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4944"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4944\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4944"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4944"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4944"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}