Anti-abortion groups divided over RFK Jr., after Pence objects to Trump’s pick

Two conservative groups opposing abortion rights announced Friday they support President-elect Donald Trump’s pick of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to head the Department of Health and Human Services, after former Vice President Mike Pence criticized the selection over abortion concerns. 

If confirmed to the position, Kennedy would have sweeping authority over a number of agencies that could directly affect access to abortion nationwide, including the Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. 

In a post Friday, Pence criticized Kennedy’s selection as teeing up “the most pro-abortion Republican appointed secretary of HHS in modern history.”

“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,” Pence said in a statement published by the group Advancing American Freedom, calling the choice “deeply concerning to millions of pro-life Americans.”

Some of Trump’s allies have dismissed Pence’s objection, arguing that there is no reason to believe that Kennedy would buck the platform hammered out by Republicans over the summer that largely deferred the issue to the states.

“RFK Jr. is going to serve at the pleasure of the president. And the president has been very clear that his policy is that there’s no federal role in abortion,” Terry Schilling, head of the American Principles Project, told CBS News. 

Schilling’s political action committee bills itself as “the only national pro-family organization” directly engaging in elections on a slate of issues including opposition to abortion and gender-affirming care. He said they spent $18 million in campaigns this year and also plan to work to support Kennedy’s nomination.

He pointed to other areas where Kennedy’s “Make America Healthy Again” agenda might find common ground with conservatives, citing Kennedy’s past stances questioning puberty blockers and other kinds of hormone therapy for transgender minors.

“Trump chose him because of his Make America Healthy Again agenda. And it’s very clear there are a lot of problems in our country, and I think RFK Jr. is the best suited person to get to the bottom of that,” Schilling said.

Another major activist group, Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, also voiced concern over the Kennedy pick. 

“There’s no question that we need a pro-life HHS secretary, and of course, we have concerns about Robert F. Kennedy Jr.,” Marjorie Dannenfelser, the group’s president, said in a statement.

But regardless of who is HHS secretary, Dannenfelser also said that they believed “baseline policies” set by Trump’s first term would return.

A person close to the president-elect’s transition said did not think the abortion issue would pose an actual hurdle to Kennedy’s confirmation, and said they were unsurprised that Pence was making the argument against Kennedy.

Trump expressed support for Kennedy’s “Make America Healthy Again” platform during the campaign, and offered to let him “go wild on health” in the new administration.

“Do whatever you want. You just go ahead. Work on pesticides, work on making women’s health. He’s so into women’s health, and you know he’s really unbelievable. It’s such a passion,” Trump said of Kennedy on Nov. 4.

In a statement, the group Americans United for Life told CBS News that they were “optimistic about working with RFK Jr. to correct the wrongs of the Biden/Harris administration.” 

But they also appeared to acknowledge his views were not fully in alignment. 

“Like many newcomers to the conservative pro-life movement, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. needs further education on the reality of abortion and its harmful effects,” John Mize, the group’s CEO, told CBS News in a statement.

Mize pointed to Kennedy’s comments at the Iowa State Fair in August, in which he suggested he would support a federal ban on abortion. Kennedy’s campaign later walked that back — one of several changes Kennedy made to his shifting position on abortion during his longshot presidential bid.

Before dropping out, Kennedy posted in June that he backed “the emerging consensus that abortion should be unrestricted up until a certain point,” while also calling for policies that could “reduce more abortions in America by choice than by force.”

There are ways that Kennedy could go further to cement his support among anti-abortion activists, Mize said. 

As one “large signal to the movement,” Mize suggested, Kennedy could support reinstating the FDA’s restrictions requiring in-person prescribing of the medication abortion pill mifepristone. More than 60% of abortions in the U.S. in 2023 involved use of the pills, and many prescriptions are now obtained via telehealth.