Robert F. Kennedy Jr., President Trump’s pick to lead the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), has been tough to tie down to one stance on abortion. For most of his career, he has supported it—in stark contrast to the views of many prominent figures in the current Administration.
But in a Senate confirmation hearing on Jan. 29, Kennedy clarified his position on abortion. “I serve at the pleasure of the President,” he said in response to a question about his abortion beliefs. “I’m going to implement his policies.”
Here’s what to know about Kennedy’s past and current stance on abortion.
What Kennedy has said in the past about abortion
Kennedy, a former Democrat, has long advocated for women’s reproductive rights and supported a woman’s right to choose whether or not she gets an abortion. As a presidential candidate in May 2024, Kennedy described every abortion as a “tragedy” but said the decision should be left up to women, going as far as to say this freedom to choose should extend to full-term pregnancies.
Shortly after, in a long post on X, he clarified his statement but essentially continued to back abortion. “I support the emerging consensus that abortion should be unrestricted up until a certain point. I believe that point should be when the baby is viable outside the womb. Therefore I would allow appropriate restrictions on abortion in the final months of pregnancy, just as Roe v. Wade did.”
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In a video he posted to Facebook in June, he further explained that his stance on late-term abortion, in particular, had evolved. He initially believed that the only reason a woman would get an abortion in the third trimester is if the pregnancy put her life at risk or the baby had a fatal condition. “I don’t think a bureaucrat or a judge is better equipped than the baby’s own mother to decide what to do in those circumstances,” he said.
“I had been assuming that virtually all late-term abortions were such cases, but I’ve learned that my assumption was wrong,” he wrote on X. “Sometimes, women abort healthy, viable late-term fetuses. These cases of purely ‘elective’ late-term abortion are very upsetting. Once the baby is viable outside the womb, it should have rights and it deserves society’s protection.”
His position on abortion now
At the confirmation hearing, Kennedy stuck to a different refrain: “I agree with President Trump that every abortion is a tragedy,” he said several times. “I agree with him that we cannot be a moral nation if there are 1.2 million abortions a year,” he also said. “I agree with him that states should control abortion.”
The statements reflect Kennedy’s changing position as he attempts to appease Trump’s conservative anti-abortion supporters.
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Numerous Democratic senators pointed out his past pro-choice position in the hearing. “I have never seen any major politician flip on that issue quite as quickly as you did when Trump asked you to become HHS Secretary,” said Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont.
Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, a Democrat from Nevada, asked if a pregnant woman with a life-threatening bleed should be able to get an emergency abortion even if her state bans them. “You would agree, also as an attorney, that federal law protects her right to that emergency care. Correct?” Kennedy responded after a long pause, “I don’t know.”
A clash with conservatives and changing stances
Kennedy’s views on abortion have put him at odds with more conservative Republicans, who have successfully instituted abortion bans in 13 states. The anti-abortion agenda outlined in Project 2025—from which President Trump has already drawn for many of actions early in his second term—calls for an end to abortion medications, which is how most women in the U.S. get abortions.
Concerned that new policies could restrict or remove that access, some providers have reported spikes in these requests after Trump was elected President in November.
But Kennedy made it clear that on abortion medication, too, he would defer to Trump to inform his new stance. “President Trump has asked me to study the safety of mifepristone,” Kennedy said during the hearing—despite the fact that the medication has already been reviewed and approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration as safe and effective. “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.”
