Robert F. Kennedy said he would carry out President Donald Trump‘s policies that restrict access to abortion, a stark reversal of his pro-choice stance on the issue in the past.
“President Trump has told me that he wants to end late-term abortions, he wants to protect conscientious exemptions and that he wants to end federal funding for abortions abroad,” Kennedy said during his confirmation hearing before the Senate Finance Committee on Wednesday. “I serve at the pleasure of the president. I’m going to implement his policies.”
While running as an independent candidate in the 2024 presidential race, Kennedy initially said he backed women having access to abortion at any point during their pregnancy. He walked back his position days later amid pressure from his own campaign, saying the procedure should only be legal up until the fetus is “viable outside the womb.”
Kennedy also told senators on Wednesday that, if confirmed, he would “study the safety of mifepristone” at Trump’s request, referring to the highly researched abortion medication found to be safer than Viagra and penicillin and comparable to the safety of ibuprofen.
“He has not yet taken a stand on how to regulate it,” he said about the president. “Whatever he does, I will implement those policies.”
The apparent malleability of Kennedy’s beliefs, which he had emphasized as crucial to his fitness for the job as health secretary, was a point that several Democratic senators highlighted in their questioning.
“Mr. Kennedy, I’m confused. You have clearly stated in the past that bodily autonomy is one of your core values. The question is, do you stand for that value or not?” asked Sen. Maggie Hassan, D-N.H. “When was it that you decided to sell out the values you have had your whole life in order to be given power by President Trump?”
Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, D-Nev., also grilled Kennedy on whether, as health secretary, he would simply be “a rubber stamp to this administration,” including for policies that go against views he has expressed.
Kennedy responded that the chronic disease epidemic is his chief concern and that all other “disputes” about the details are simply “moving deck chairs around on the Titanic.”
