Abortion opponents praised Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on Wednesday, after he vowed at a Senate hearing to implement “whatever” position President Trump takes on regulating abortion pills, if confirmed as the next secretary of health and human services.
Kennedy’s pledge comes as conservatives have stepped up pressure on the Trump administration to force the Food and Drug Administration to roll back decisions that eased restrictions on the abortion pill mifepristone, also known as Mifeprex.
If confirmed as head of the department that oversees the FDA, Kennedy would have broad authority over how the pills are regulated, among a number of powers that HHS has to affect access to abortion nationwide.
“Today, we received clear signals that the prolife movement can work with RFK Junior. Acknowledging that every abortion is a tragedy left my team applauding,” John Mize, head of the conservative group Americans United for Life, said in a statement.
Mize’s group led a “coalition of leading pro-life organizations” ahead of the hearing that called on the Trump administration to step up restrictions on the abortion pill or pull it from the U.S. market altogether, ending access to the medication abortion option, even in states where abortion is legal.
“President Trump has asked me to study the safety of mifepristone. He has not yet taken a stand on how to regulate it. Whatever he does, I will implement those policies and I will work with this committee, make those policies make sense,” Kennedy told the Senate Committee on Finance.
Kennedy also told the committeee that the president had “made it clear to me that he wants me to look at safety issues, and I’ll ask NIH and FDA to do that.”
Democrats on the Senate panel expressed alarm about Kennedy’s apparent openness to restricting mifepristone.
“Women deserve to know if Mr. Kennedy will abuse his power as our country’s chief health officer to essentially implement a national abortion ban by restricting access to the safe and legal medication,” said Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon, the ranking member on the committee.
After the hearing, a spokesperson for Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America said the group was looking forward to Kennedy’s second round Thursday before the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions.
“We were encouraged by the questions asked and the answers given,” said Kelsey Pritchard, the group’s political communications director, in an email.
Not all conservative organizations were persuaded by Kennedy’s answers at the hearing. The group Advancing American Freedom, backed by former Vice President Mike Pence, doubled down Wednesday on calls for senators to reject Kennedy’s nomination.
“The American people deserve an HHS Secretary with a firm commitment to protecting life, who doesn’t fall for or promote health-related misinformation,” the group said on X.
Democrats also pointed to Kennedy’s long record of voicing support for abortion, including a previous statement that he supported abortion up to full term.
“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? 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,” New Hampshire Democratic Senator Maggie Hassan asked Kennedy at the hearing.
Kennedy said multiple times during the hearing that he now agrees “with President Trump that every abortion is a tragedy” and serves “at the pleasure of the president.”
“President Trump has told me that he wants to end late-term abortions. And that he wants to protect conscience exemptions and that he wants to end federal funding for abortions here or abroad,” he said.
Other HHS authorities over abortion
Beyond the FDA’s regulation on mifepristone, it would be up to Kennedy to sign off on other changes called for by conservatives around abortion policy, including limits on how money is used under the so-called Title X funding for family planning clinics.
He pledged at the hearing to “support President Trump’s policies on Title X.”
Under the first Trump administration, rules levied by HHS on Title X resulted in Planned Parenthood’s departure from the funding program, decrying the rules as a “gag order” on providers referring patients to abortion services.
Another major way the department has wielded its authority in the past on abortion has been through the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act, or EMTALA.
The Biden administration used the law to sue states with sweeping abortion bans, saying the laws were blocking doctors from offering care to stabilize pregnant patients in emergencies.
Kennedy said Wednesday he didn’t know he had that authority.
“You will be enforcing EMTALA laws. And it’s important that you understand their impact and don’t play politics with the patient presenting at the ER based on a position that this administration has taken,” said Sen.Catherine Cortez-Masto, a Democrat from Nevada, at the hearing.
