CBS News – Abortion opponents praised Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on Wednesday, after he vowed at a Senate hearing to implement “whatever” position President Trump takes on regulating abortion pills, if confirmed as the next secretary of health and human services.
Kennedy’s pledge comes as conservatives have stepped up pressure on the Trump administration to force the Food and Drug Administration to roll back decisions that eased restrictions on the abortion pill mifepristone, also known as Mifeprex.
If confirmed as head of the department that oversees the FDA, Kennedy would have broad authority over how the pills are regulated, among a number of powers that HHS has to affect access to abortion nationwide.
“Today, we received clear signals that the prolife movement can work with RFK Junior. Acknowledging that every abortion is a tragedy left my team applauding,” John Mize, head of the conservative group Americans United for Life, said in a statement.
Mize’s group led a “coalition of leading pro-life organizations” ahead of the hearing that called on the Trump administration to step up restrictions on the abortion pill or pull it from the U.S. market altogether, ending access to the medication abortion option, even in states where abortion is legal.
“President Trump has asked me to study the safety of mifepristone. 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,” Kennedy told the Senate Committee on Finance.
Kennedy also told the committeee that the president had “made it clear to me that he wants me to look at safety issues, and I’ll ask NIH and FDA to do that.”
Democrats on the Senate panel expressed alarm about Kennedy’s apparent openness to restricting mifepristone …
