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RFK Jr. affirms 'every abortion is a tragedy' during Senate confirmation hearing

By Emily MangiaracinaJanuary 29, 2025 at 3:59 PM
RFK Jr. affirms 'every abortion is a tragedy' during Senate confirmation hearing
Getty Images | Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

RFK Jr. has always been firmly supportive of legal abortion but emphasized his personal belief that ‘every abortion is a tragedy’ and said that Trump told him he wants to end late-term abortions and federal funding for abortion.

WASHINGTON, D.C. (LifeSiteNews) -- Trump’s nominee for Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. insisted that “every abortion is a tragedy” when pressed on his abortion stance during today’s Senate confirmation hearing.

“I agree with President Trump that every abortion is a tragedy. I agree with him that we cannot be a moral nation if we have 1.2 million abortions a year,” said Kennedy, who is generally supportive of legal abortion, when questioned by the fervently pro-abortion Senator Maggie Hassan (D-NH).

READ: Dear RFK Jr: The FDA is harming women by pretending the abortion pill is ‘safe’

He added that he agrees with Trump that “states should control abortion” laws.

“President Trump has told me that he wants to end late-term abortions, and he wants to protect conscience exemptions, and that he wants to end federal funding for abortions here and abroad,” said Kennedy in a firm declaration of deference to the president’s wishes.

Hassan had accused Kennedy of being a “sell out” and compromising his “values” of “bodily autonomy” (that is, the so-called “right” to abortion, the killing of innocent children).

“When was it that you decided to sell out the values you’ve had your whole life in order to be given power by President Trump?” she pressed.

Kennedy has in fact historically been firmly pro-abortion while attempting to distinguish between his “personal” views on abortion and his belief about whether it should be legal. When he ran as an independent presidential candidate in 2024, he said would sign a federal law codifying a nationwide “right” to abortion.

During this time, he expressed his belief “that every abortion is a tragedy” while insisting that “women should make the choice” of abortion.

In May, he went so far as to declare that he believes women should be able to kill even late-term babies through abortion.

However, Kennedy also “supports reinstating the bar on Title X funds going to organizations that promote abortion,” according to Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO), who laid out the HHS secretary’s promises in a thread on X (formerly Twitter).

“He pledged to reverse the Biden Admin’s Section 1557 rule and also said all of his deputies at HHS would be prolife,” Hawley wrote. Section 1557 is an Obamacare regulation that would force healthcare providers to go along with a gender-confused person’s declared gender, despite it being incongruent with biological sex.

In an otherwise glowing 2021 review of his “extraordinary” book The Real Anthony Fauci, the American Spectator’s Jack Cashill faulted Kennedy for omitting the preborn from the stated mission of Children’s Health Defense of “hold[ing] bad actors accountable in order to help ensure a healthy future for our children.”

“It is hard to imagine any exposure more ‘toxic’ for a baby than to be vacuumed into oblivion or ripped apart by forceps,” Cashill wrote at the time. “Calling the baby a ‘fetus’ may salve the conscience of the abortion industry’s enablers, but it does not make the killing any more humane. Here is hoping that Bobby, upon seeing the irony, expands the CHD franchise to ‘children from the very moment of conception.’”

U.S. & Politics
January 29, 2025 at 3:59 PM
EM

Emily Mangiaracina

Emily Mangiaracina is a Miami-based journalist for LifeSiteNews. She is a 2013 graduate of the University of Florida. Emily is most passionate about the Traditional Latin Mass and promoting the teachings of the Catholic Church.
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Article At A Glance

  • RFK Jr. has always been firmly supportive of legal abortion but emphasized his personal belief that ‘every abortion is a tragedy’ and said that Trump told him he wants to end late-term abortions and federal funding for abortion.

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