Former Vice President Mike Pence is urging GOP senators to reject President-elect Trump’s nomination of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to lead the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) because of his views on abortion.
In a statement from his conservative nonprofit Advancing American Freedom on Friday, Pence said Kennedy’s nomination “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.”
Kennedy has been inconsistent on his abortion position. When he launched his presidential campaign as a Democrat, Kennedy endorsed a ban on abortion after the first trimester but then quickly backtracked. He also suggested he opposed banning abortion before fetal viability, generally around 24 weeks into a pregnancy.
On his campaign website, Kennedy says he is “a firm supporter of the principles laid out 50 years ago in Roe v. Wade” and that “if the courts do not overturn Dobbs v. Jackson and restore abortion rights, he will support legislation to accomplish the same.”
Trump himself said he does not support a federal abortion ban and ran his campaign distancing himself from the anti-abortion wing of the Republican party.
Pence, a staunch religious conservative, has become an occasional critic of his former boss on policy positions, especially Trump’s view that abortion should be left to states. Pence previously said Trump’s stance was a “slap in the face” to abortion opponents.
According to Project 2025, the conservative Heritage Foundation’s plan for Trump’s second term, Republicans want to restore to “the department of life,” using a Christian-centric basis for governing.
“The Trump-Pence administration was unapologetically pro-life for our four years in office. There are hundreds of decisions made at HHS every day that either lead our nation toward a respect for life or away from it, and HHS under our administration always stood for life,” Pence said.
“On behalf of tens of millions of pro-life Americans, I respectfully urge Senate Republicans to reject this nomination and give the American people a leader who will respect the sanctity of life as secretary of Health and Human Services.”
Leading anti-abortion groups are reacting more tepidly, not outright calling for Kennedy’s rejection but not yet openly endorsing him, either.
“There’s no question that we need a pro-life HHS secretary, and of course, we have concerns about Robert F. Kennedy Jr. I believe that no matter who is HHS secretary, baseline policies set by President Trump during his first term will be re-established,” Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, said in a statement to The Hill.
Kristan Hawkins, president of Students for Life, said in a statement that she was looking forward to speaking with Kennedy about refocusing HHS so it isn’t “prejudiced against pro-life Americans, including pro-life hospitals.”
“RFK Jr. has a proven track record of holding healthcare bureaucrats accountable for putting public health first, over political interests. There is no more weaponized agency than HHS, where whatever is good for the Democrats big donor — Planned Parenthood — gets fast tracked,” Hawkins said.