Mike Pence Again Urges Senate To Reject RFK Jr. Nomination Over Previous Abortion Support

A conservative group founded by former Vice President Mike Pence is urging Republican lawmakers to reject the nomination of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to lead the Department of Health and Human Services over his past support for abortion.

While public health officials have come out against Kennedy over his spreading of dangerous conspiracy theories and his anti-vaccine stance, conservative advocacy group Advancing American Freedom appears more concerned with Kennedy’s previous comments in support of abortion access.

“While RFK Jr. has made certain overtures to pro-life leaders ... there is little reason for confidence at this time,” AAF President Tim Chapman and Chairman Marc Short wrote in a statement Wednesday. “There are hundreds of decisions made every day at HHS that either lead our nation toward a respect for life or away from it—decisions about federal funding for Planned Parenthood, regulations on the abortion pill (currently accounting for three out of every five abortions), insurance coverage of abortion, and more.”

Kennedy has repeatedly flip-flopped on the issue. In June, he said abortion “should be unrestricted up until a certain point.”

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“Even in the reddest of red states, voters reject total abortion bans,” Kennedy said in a video to his supporters. “And in blue states, almost no one supports third-trimester abortions except to save the life of the mother. And so I support the emerging consensus that abortion should be unrestricted up until a certain point.”

Pence, a Trump critic since the end of the first Trump administration, first urged lawmakers to reject Kennedy’s nomination in November following President-elect Donald Trump’s presidential win.

“I believe the nomination of RFK Jr. to serve as Secretary of HHS is an abrupt departure from the pro-life record of our administration and should be deeply concerning to millions of Pro-Life Americans who have supported the Republican Party and our nominees for decades,” Pence said in a statement at the time.

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