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{"id":5480,"date":"2025-01-29T17:45:30","date_gmt":"2025-01-29T17:45:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/democrats-highlight-rfk-jr-s-past-support-for-abortion-rights\/"},"modified":"2025-01-29T17:45:30","modified_gmt":"2025-01-29T17:45:30","slug":"democrats-highlight-rfk-jr-s-past-support-for-abortion-rights","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/democrats-highlight-rfk-jr-s-past-support-for-abortion-rights\/","title":{"rendered":"Democrats highlight RFK Jr.\u2019s past support for abortion rights"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p>Democrats on the Senate Finance Committee hit on Robert F. Kennedy Jr.\u2019s past comments in support of abortion rights during his Wednesday confirmation hearing to lead the Department of Health and Human Services, but accused him of hypocrisy for telling Republicans he\u2019d back President Donald Trump\u2019s anti-abortion policies.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen was it that you decided to sell out the values you&#8217;ve had your whole life in order to be given power by President Trump?\u201d Sen. <a href=\"https:\/\/directory.politicopro.com\/member\/232351\" data-person-id=\"232351\">Maggie Hassan<\/a> (D-N.H.) asked.<\/p>\n<p>During Hassan\u2019s questioning, staffers held up posters with Kennedy\u2019s past comments on abortion, including during a 2023 interview on the Charlie Kirk Show in which Kennedy said: \u201cWe need to trust women to make that choice, because I don\u2019t trust government to make any choices \u2026 particularly when it comes to bodily autonomy.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Staffers for Sen. <a href=\"https:\/\/directory.politicopro.com\/member\/51605\" data-person-id=\"51605\">Bernie Sanders<\/a> (I-Vt.) also held up posters with photos of infant onesies being sold by the Children\u2019s Health Defense, the anti-vaccine group founded by Kennedy, which featured phrases including \u201cUnvaxxed, unafraid\u201d and \u201cNo vax, no problem.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAre you supportive of these onesies?\u201d Sanders asked. Kennedy responded that he has no control over the group. According to public financial disclosures, Kennedy left the board of the organization in December.<\/p>\n<p>Kennedy repeatedly told senators he thinks \u201cevery abortion is a tragedy\u201d and said his family was \u201csplit on life and choice.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Before Trump named him to lead HHS, Kennedy argued for fewer government restrictions on abortion. Less than a year ago, he said there should be no restrictions on abortion \u2014 a position he later walked back.<\/p>\n<p>Since Trump nominated him, Kennedy has assured senators he wants to execute Trump\u2019s agenda, not his own \u2014 a stance that has <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/news\/2024\/12\/18\/republican-senators-robert-f-kennedy-jr-00195034\" target=\"_blank\">seemed to satisfy<\/a> even Sen. <a href=\"https:\/\/directory.politicopro.com\/member\/151793\" data-person-id=\"151793\">James Lankford<\/a> (R-Okla.), previously a Southern Baptist minister who describes himself as \u201cthe Senate\u2019s most pro-life member.\u201d Other anti-abortion senators <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnn.com\/2025\/01\/27\/politics\/rfk-jr-health-secretary-nomination-senate\/index.html\" target=\"_blank\">have asked Kennedy for more assurances<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Under questioning from Montana Republican <a href=\"https:\/\/directory.politicopro.com\/member\/198810\" data-person-id=\"198810\">Steve Daines<\/a>, Kennedy said Trump has asked him to study the safety of mifepristone, a drug used in the medication abortion regimen standard in the U.S., adding that the president hasn\u2019t yet \u201ctaken a stand on how to regulate it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s immoral to have a policy where patients are not allowed to report adverse events, or doctors are discouraged from doing that,\u201d Kennedy said.<\/p>\n<p>No such policy exists at the FDA, the agency charged with monitoring the safety and effectiveness of drugs. The regulator recently updated its <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fda.gov\/media\/185245\/download?attachment\" target=\"_blank\">summary of adverse event reports<\/a> regarding mifepristone based on data received through the end of 2024, though it cautions that it can\u2019t verify whether reported events are \u201ccausally attributed\u201d to the drug.<\/p>\n<p>The Trump administration\u2019s stance on mifepristone and other abortion access policies are a central question for anti-abortion and abortion rights groups alike.<\/p>\n<p>In response to a question from Sen. <a href=\"https:\/\/directory.politicopro.com\/member\/192907\" data-person-id=\"192907\">Thom Tillis<\/a> (R-N.C.), Kennedy said he\u2019d support Trump policies on the Title X federal family planning program. During his first term, Trump barred federally funded clinics from referring patients to abortion providers. That <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/story\/2019\/08\/19\/planned-parenthood-trump-administration-1468561\" target=\"_blank\">prompted abortion and women\u2019s health care provider<\/a> Planned Parenthood to pull out of the Title X program.<\/p>\n<p><i>Daniel Payne contributed reporting.<\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Democrats on the Senate Finance Committee hit on Robert F. Kennedy Jr.\u2019s past comments in support of abortion rights during his Wednesday confirmation hearing to lead the Department of Health and Human Services, but accused him of hypocrisy for telling Republicans he\u2019d back President Donald Trump\u2019s anti-abortion policies. \u201cWhen was it that you decided to [&hellip;]<\/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-5480","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\/5480","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=5480"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5480\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5480"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5480"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5480"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}