Pro-life senator: RFK Jr said he will ‘reinstate… pro-life policies at HHS’
This week, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. (RFK), President-elect Trump’s selection to lead the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) for the incoming Trump administration, has been meeting with several U.S. senators to “be pressed on his beliefs about abortion, which have left some Republicans with questions,” along with other issues like vaccines, according to a report from Fox News.
Senator Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.) told media that his discussion with Kennedy revealed that he and Kennedy agree with Trump in leaving abortion to the states to decide now that Roe v. Wade is gone, with Tuberville stating, “I’m pro-life, but I am glad the American citizens have a chance to vote in their state, and [Kennedy’s] the same way.”
However, at least one pro-life senator seemed to get down to brass tacks, so to speak, with RFK, pressing him on specific actions he might take as head of HHS. Senator Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) stated in a thread on X that he had met with RFK for a “substantive discussion… about prolife policies at HHS.”
Hawley wrote, “Today I got to sit down with @RobertKennedyJr – we had a substantive discussion about American healthcare & his plans to take on Big Pharma. We also had a good discussion, at length, about prolife policies at HHS.”
Today I got to sit down with @RobertKennedyJr - we had a substantive discussion about American healthcare & his plans to take on Big Pharma. We also had a good discussion, at length, about prolife policies at HHS
Hawley noted in followup tweets that Kennedy “committed to me to reinstate President Trump’s prolife policies at HHS. That includes reinstating the Mexico City policy & ending taxpayer funding for abortions domestically.”
During Trump’s first term as president, he actually expanded the Mexico City Policy, closing a loophole that had previously allowed “federal funds to be used indirectly for groups that perform or promote abortion internationally.”
He committed to me to reinstate President Trump’s prolife policies at HHS. That includes reinstating the Mexico City policy & ending taxpayer funding for abortions domestically
Hawley added that Kennedy “supports reinstating the bar on Title X funds going to organizations that promote abortion.”
To qualify for Title X funding during the first Trump administration, businesses were required to both fiscally and physically separate any abortion-related operations from their other services. This became known as the Protect Life Rule.
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“He pledged to reverse the Biden Admin’s Section 1557 rule and also said all of his deputies at HHS would be prolife. He told me he believes there are far too many abortions in the US and that we cannot be the moral leader of the free world with abortion rates so high,” Hawley wrote, adding, “RFK also pledged to reinstate conscience protections for healthcare providers.”
He pledged to reverse the Biden Admin’s Section 1557 rule and also said all of his deputies at HHS would be prolife. He told me he believes there are far too many abortions in the US and that we cannot be the moral leader of the free world with abortion rates so high
Section 1557 is a portion of the Affordable Care Act (“Obamacare”) that “banned discrimination in health care based on race, color, national origin, sex, age, and disability,” according to a prior report from Live Action News. However, a press release issued at the time noted that “the rule ‘[m]akes clear that discrimination on the basis of sex includes discrimination on the basis of pregnancy or related conditions, including ‘pregnancy termination’” and additionally was meant to ensure that “women and trans youth,” could “access health care free from discrimination,” according to HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra. This caused concern for many medical professionals who noted that the rule could force them to participate in abortions and transgender surgeries against their consciences.
Hawley did not note whether he and RFK discussed restoring the FDA’s safety measures (REMS) on the distribution of the abortion pill (mifepristone) that were removed by the Biden-Harris administration — without, as one lawsuit notes, “any studies that evaluated the impact of removing all of these interrelated safeguards at once.” However, reconsidering the clear dangers of the abortion pill would be one way to help reduce the high U.S. abortion rates.
Senator Hawley holds an “A+” rating from SBA Pro-Life America’s National Pro-Life Scorecard, which states that he “has voted consistently to defend the lives of the unborn and infants. This includes stopping hard-earned tax dollars from paying for abortion, including abortion travel expenses, whether domestically or internationally, and pushing back on the [Biden-Harris] administration’s extreme executive actions on abortion.”
According to a report from the Washington Examiner, this week, “Kennedy plans to meet with Sens. Bill Hagerty (R-TN), Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-MS), James Lankford (R-OK), John Barrasso (R-WY), John Thune (R-SD), Josh Hawley (R-MO), Katie Britt (R-AL), Lindsey Graham (R-SC), Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), Mike Crapo (R-ID), Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), Rand Paul (R-KY), Roger Marshall (R-KS), Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV), Steve Daines (R-MT), Ted Budd (R-NC), Ted Cruz (R-TX), Thom Tillis (R-NC), Tom Cotton (R-AR), Tommy Tuberville (R-AL), and Dan Sullivan (R-AK).”
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