Former Vice President Mike Pence has called on Republican senators to reject President-elect Donald J. Trump’s nomination of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to be secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, citing his record in support of abortion rights.
“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 as secretary of Health and Human Services,” Mr. Pence said in a statement.
Many Republicans haven’t seemed to care that Mr. Trump has tried to rebrand himself as more moderate on abortion after the political fallout following the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, which established a right to abortion in the federal Constitution. But Mr. Pence has consistently called for a national abortion ban and has condemned Mr. Trump’s equivocations.
Mr. Pence, whose relationship with Mr. Trump ended after he refused the former president’s unconstitutional order to unilaterally reject the results of the 2020 election, described Mr. Kennedy as a choice unlike any in the modern era of the G.O.P.
Mr. Kennedy does not support a federal ban on abortion, saying in a statement in May, while he was still campaigning for president, that abortion should be unrestricted until “the baby is viable outside the womb.” He said that he would “allow appropriate restrictions on abortion in the final months of pregnancy.” His campaign spokeswoman, Stefanie Spear, said at the time that Mr. Kennedy believed states should be able to enact limits after the point of viability.
Mr. Pence made clear he was especially alarmed about the choice because of the many decisions made within the Health and Human Services Department that could touch upon abortion rights.
“The Trump-Pence administration was unapologetically pro-life for our four years in office,” he said. “There are hundreds of decisions made at H.H.S. every day that either lead our nation toward a respect for life or away from it, and H.H.S. under our administration always stood for life.”
“For the majority of his career, R.F.K. Jr. has defended abortion on demand during all nine months of pregnancy, supports overturning the Dobbs decision and has called for legislation to codify Roe v Wade,” Mr. Pence added. “If confirmed, R.F.K., Jr. would be the most pro-abortion Republican appointed secretary of H.H.S. in modern history.”
Mr. Pence was one of a few candidates who opposed Mr. Trump on ideological grounds during the Republican primaries, and he intends to continue playing that role in the hopes of restoring the party to a traditional conservative movement. So far, his effort to steer the party away from populism has appeared futile, though Mr. Pence’s advocacy group, Advancing American Freedom, has raised more than $20 million for the effort.
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