RFK Jr. backs, then backs off, support for three-month abortion ban
Democratic presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s team has distanced the political scion from statements he made over the weekend supporting restrictions on abortion after three months of pregnancy.
“Mr. Kennedy misunderstood a question posed to him by a NBC reporter in a crowded, noisy exhibit hall at the Iowa State Fair,” his campaign wrote in an unsigned statement late Sunday.
“Mr. Kennedy’s position on abortion is that it is always the woman’s right to choose. He does not support legislation banning abortion.”
Hours earlier, the 69-year-old expressed support for limiting the controversial procedure when pressed by NBC News reporter Ali Vitali in Des Moines.
“The decision to abort a child should be up to the women during the first three months of life,” Kennedy said.
Vitali followed up by asking the candidate whether he would “cap” abortion after three months.
“Yes, three months,” replied Kennedy, who did not appear to be confused by his noisy surroundings.
“Once a child is viable, outside the womb, I think then the state has an interest in protecting the child,” he added, according to a transcript posted by Vitali. “I’m for medical freedom. Individuals ought to be able to make their own choices.”
“I think the states have a right to protect a child once the child becomes viable, and that right, it increases. And I think there’s very, very few abortions that are performed after that period of time anyway.”
Late Monday afternoon, Kennedy told The Post in a signed statement that “I am a firm supporter of the principles laid out 50 years ago in Roe v. Wade.
For Constitutional and moral reasons, I believe the decision on whether to continue a pregnancy should be up to the mother,” he added. “If the courts do not overturn Dobbs v. Jackson and restore abortion rights, I will support legislation to accomplish the same. Body sovereignty must be protected.”
Kennedy’s remarks drew rare praise from the anti-abortion group Susan. B Anthony Pro-Life America, which hailed his comments as “a stark contrast to the Democratic Party’s radical stance of abortion on demand, with no protection for babies in the womb or their mothers, right up to the end of pregnancy.”
The Democratic insurgent has drawn kudos from some conservatives over his tendency to buck party orthodoxy on certain issues.
Kennedy has been best known on the campaign trial for his bizarre statement last month that COVID-19 may have been “ethnically targeted” to spare Chinese people and Ashkenazi Jews.
The son of the late attorney general and senator from New York Robert F. Kennedy trails President Biden by 50.3 percentage points nationwide, according to the RealClearPolitics polling average.
