Mike Pence Urges Senate To Oppose RFK Jr. For HHS Secretary Over Abortion Stance

WASHINGTON – President-elect Donald Trump’s choice to faucet Robert F. Kennedy Jr. for secretary of the Division of Well being and Human Providers is uniting probably the most unlikely of factions: reproductive rights teams and former Vice President Mike Pence, each of whom oppose his nomination.

“I imagine the nomination of RFK Jr. to function Secretary of HHS is an abrupt departure from the pro-life file of our administration and ought to be deeply regarding to thousands and thousands of Professional-Life Individuals who’ve supported the Republican Party and our nominees for many years,” Pence mentioned in an announcement.

Pence, who served with Trump for 4 years however ended his relationship with him after Trump nearly got him killed for protecting the peaceful transition of power to President Joe Biden in 2021, mentioned Kennedy has been an abortion rights supporter for many of his profession.

“RFK Jr. has defended abortion on demand throughout all 9 months of being pregnant, helps overturning the Dobbs choice and has referred to as for laws to codify Roe v Wade,” the previous vp mentioned. “If confirmed, RFK, Jr. could be probably the most pro-abortion Republican appointed secretary of HHS in trendy historical past.”

“On behalf of tens of thousands and thousands of pro-life Individuals, I respectfully urge Senate Republicans to reject this nomination and provides the American folks a frontrunner who will respect the sanctity of life as secretary of Well being and Human Providers,” Pence added.

However Kennedy doesn’t have help from reproductive rights teams both.

“Trump ran on a promise to not ban abortion nationwide, however his cupboard nominees are Challenge 2025 come to life,” Mini Timmaraju, president and CEO of Reproductive Freedom for All, mentioned in an announcement. “RFK Jr. is an unfit, unqualified extremist who can’t be trusted to guard the well being, security, and reproductive freedom of American households.”

Timmaraju famous that Challenge 2025, the Heritage Basis’s 920-page far-right policy blueprint for a second Trump administration, directs the Division of Well being and Human Providers to place in place insurance policies that threaten entry to emergency abortion care, contraception and assisted fertility therapies like in vitro fertilization.

“Anybody who permits these appointments is complicit within the realization of Challenge 2025 and the additional destruction of our rights and freedoms,” Timmaraju mentioned.

If the Senate confirms Kennedy for this put up, he would oversee the Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention, the Meals and Drug Administration and the Nationwide Institutes of Well being.

Kennedy, a conspiracy theorist and vaccine skeptic, has pledged to buck science to make main well being coverage adjustments, like advising “all U.S. water techniques” to take away fluoride from public water as a result of, in accordance with him, it’s linked to bone most cancers and IQ loss.

There may be no evidence to recommend that the degrees of fluoride in consuming water result in this. On the contrary, the CDC helps having protected ranges of fluoride in water “as an efficient, cost-efficient technique for stopping tooth decay and enhancing total oral well being.”