Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) said Robert F. Kennedy Jr., President-elect Trump’s pick to lead the Department of Health and Human Services, pledged to support efforts to reimpose restrictions on the abortion pill mifepristone if Trump wants to.
Hawley told reporters Wednesday that he suggested to Kennedy during a meeting on Tuesday that “it would be a wise idea to return to the rule under the last Trump administration, which required in-person dispensing” of the drug.
Mifepristone is the first of a two-drug regimen used for medication abortion. The Biden administration permanently removed the in-person dispensing requirement last year, allowing the drug to be sent through the mail even in states that ban abortion.
“We reviewed what the Biden administration has done on this issue, which is basically just to try and negate anything that the state voters might do,” Hawley said. “So we talked about that. He [Kennedy] acknowledged all of that, I think, seemed to understand it.”
Hawley said Kennedy committed to implementing all the anti-abortion policies from Trump’s first term.
In posts on X, Hawley specifically said that Kennedy committed to “reinstating the Mexico City policy & ending taxpayer funding for abortions domestically.”
The Mexico City policy required foreign non-governmental organizations to certify that they would not “perform or actively promote abortion as a method of family planning” using funds from any source (including non-U.S. funds) as a condition of receiving U.S. government global family planning funding.
Hawley also said Kennedy told him “there are far too many abortions in the U.S. and that we cannot be the moral leader of the free world with abortion rates so high.”
Kennedy has been meeting with GOP senators this week to shore up support for his nomination. Among other issues, Republicans said they had questions about Kennedy’s past support for abortion.
“He said President Trump has not given him direction yet on this issue, but he will absolutely do whatever President Trump wants to do, that he will not put his thumb on the scale for any pro-choice position,” Hawley said.
“I think he’s going to follow Trump’s lead, which is fine,” Hawley said. “I’d be disappointed if the president doesn’t re-impose what these basic parameters on mifepristone, that existed up until the last 18 months.”
Trump has given mixed responses to questions about abortion pills.
In an interview on “Meet the Press,” Trump signaled he would not move to restrict access to abortion pills upon taking office, though he acknowledged “things change.”
Trump has repeatedly said abortion access should be determined by individual states, but his victory in November’s election has raised alarm among advocates about how his incoming administration might further restrict access to abortion pills through regulations at the Food and Drug Administration or through enforcement of the Comstock Act.