RFK Jr. on Whether Pregnant People Can Receive Emergency Abortions: ‘Uh, I Don’t Know’

Trump ran on making America a meritocracy. Now, a man whose brain was partially eaten by a worm is likely to decide key health care policies, including abortion access.

By Kylie Cheung  |  January 29, 2025 | 4:05pm
Photo: Screenshot AbortionPolitics
RFK Jr. on Whether Pregnant People Can Receive Emergency Abortions: ‘Uh, I Don’t Know’

On the campaign trail, Donald Trump pledged that, if elected, he’d let Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and his brain worm “go wild on health,” and subsequently nominated Kennedy to run his Health and Human Services Department. On Wednesday, senators held a confirmation hearing for Kennedy, which explored a range of topics: whether Kennedy once compared the Centers for Disease Control to a “Nazi death camp” (he did, but says he didn’t), whether health care is a human right (it is, but not to Kennedy), whether he stands by wildly offensive comments he’s made on podcasts (recurring theme at these hearings!), whether SSRIs and ADHD medications are killing us (they’re not!!), and how he’d govern vaccines (badly!). Predictably, one of the more contentious topics was abortion.

At different points, Kennedy fielded questions from Senate Democrats about his abortion rights flip-flopping. As recently as 2023, when Kennedy was running for president as a Democrat, he affirmed that abortion is a right, only to do a hard pivot after endorsing Trump in August; Sen. Maggie Hassan (D-NH) asked him point-blank: “My question is, exactly when did you decide to sell out your life’s work and values to get this position?” During the hearing, Kennedy also repeated on several occasions that “every abortion is a tragedy.” (It’s not, but being denied one by a government full of alleged sexual abusers like Kennedy sure is!) And he called for a ban on “late-term abortion,” which is just an abortion ban. We’ve been over this.

At one point, he faced a more complex but incredibly important question from Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV) about federal law and emergency abortion care. Cortez Masto referenced the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act (EMTALA), which requires hospitals that receive federal funding to provide stabilizing health care, including emergency abortions as needed; the law, as it pertains to abortion, has come under fierce debate between judges and lawmakers, including many a GOP state attorney general who insists that, actually, hospitals are legally obligated to let pregnant women die rather than provide abortions. I disagree, personally!

“A pregnant woman… bleeding from an incomplete miscarriage goes to the ER and her doctor also determines she needs an emergency abortion. But she’s in a state where abortion is banned. You would agree… that federal law protects her right to that emergency care, correct?” Cortez Masto said. 

“Uh, I don’t know,” Kennedy rasped. “I mean, the answer to that is, I don’t know.” Cool!

Over the last several months, ProPublica has reported on five women who died under abortion bans—in some cases, from not receiving timely emergency abortions to safely complete their miscarriages, causing them to bleed out or contract sepsis.

Cortez Masto followed up by asking Kennedy, “Doesn’t federal law preempt state law?” to which he replied, “The federal Constitution does. Not every federal law preempts state laws.” Incorrect, actually, but what do you really expect from a man who subsists on a diet of raw milk and, it sounds like, chunks of concrete gravel? I can’t imagine that’s especially nourishing for the brain.

Hassan’s read of Kennedy seems accurate. After she asked Kennedy when he “[sold] out” everything he believed for power from Trump, he replied, “Senator, I agree with President Trump, every abortion is a tragedy.” This really just further affirmed Hassan’s line of questioning: “So what you’re telling us, just to be clear, because my time is limited, is that regardless of what you believe, regardless of what values you have, if President Trump tells you to do something, you’re going to do it,” she said. Sounds about right.

Meanwhile, Senate Republicans devoted significant speaking time to asking dishonest questions about the “dangers” of abortion pills, which are highly safe and in fact safer than Tylenol and Viagra. Regardless, Kennedy assured the senators repeatedly that we’re in good hands, because “President Trump has asked me to study the safety of mifepristone,” which is one of the two main abortion pills, alongside misoprostol. “He has not yet taken a stand on how to regulate it. Whatever he does, I will implement those policies,” Kennedy said, reiterating several times that he, specifically, has been charged with studying and making determinations about the medication’s safety. Again: This is a man whose brain was partially eaten by a worm. 

RFK told Sen. Lankford that “every abortion is a tragedy” and said Trump told him he wanted to end later abortions and wanted him to look into the “safety” of mifepristone.
Sounds to me like hints Trump will push for a gestational ban and have FDA restrict the abortion pill

— Susan Rinkunas (@susanrinkunas.com) January 29, 2025 at 11:20 AM

Prior to the hearing, in December, Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) claimed that Kennedy affirmed to him that he’ll reinstate medically unnecessary, highly restrictive requirements on prescribing abortion pills, which are certain to push the medication out of reach for many. Medication abortion has been a lifeline for people in abortion-banned states.

Throughout the hearing, particularly where abortion was concerned, Kennedy continued to give long-winded non-answers, delivered via frog-like croaks. All answers effectively affirmed that he’ll ultimately do whatever Trump directs him to on abortion. Trump, you’ll recall, has called for people who have abortions to be punished, and is already racing to implement Project 2025, a 900-page right-wing agenda that includes steps to effectively ban medication abortion.

Kennedy’s nomination is strenuously opposed by leading public health organizations, reproductive health and rights organizations, his entire family, and Jezebel dot com.

 
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