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Former Vice President Mike Pence, a longtime chief of the anti-abortion motion, has taken up a lonely campaign to defeat the nomination of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. for well being secretary. His group, Advancing American Freedom, is working adverts in opposition to Mr. Kennedy. Mr. Pence has accused Mr. Kennedy of selling “abortion on demand.”
His fellow abortion opponents are usually not listening.
Thousands of anti-abortion activists descended on Washington on Friday to mark the 52nd anniversary of Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court case that established a constitutional proper to abortion. President Trump addressed the group on the March for Life by video. Vice President JD Vance spoke in individual. Mr. Kennedy, whose flip-flips on abortion have made many conservatives deeply uneasy, was not on the agenda — and drew no point out.
But in an indication of how the best wing of the Republican Party is kowtowing to Mr. Trump — and, maybe, of the deepening break between Mr. Pence and the president — leaders of the anti-abortion motion are lining up behind Mr. Kennedy, or at the least not overtly opposing him.
Tim Chapman, who as president of Advancing American Freedom is main Mr. Pence’s marketing campaign, mentioned others within the conservative motion had instructed him privately that they agreed with the previous vice chairman, however didn’t wish to say so publicly. He mentioned conservative leaders who didn’t oppose Mr. Kennedy have been abdicating their conventional function of pressuring party leaders on the problems the motion cared about.
“His affirmation lays naked the actual query proper now about what the motion exists to do,” Mr. Chapman mentioned, including, “We have the liberty to plant the flag, and we all know there are lots of people who agree with us on this problem, and we hope that they’ll be a part of us.”
A spokeswoman for Mr. Kennedy didn’t reply to a request for remark.
Anti-abortion teams and Christian conservatives have rallied round Mr. Trump since his first run for workplace, when he promised to nominate Supreme Court justices who would overturn Roe. He succeeded; the choice was overturned in 2022.
At the march on Friday, Mr. Trump repeated false claims about abortion rights, vowing to “cease the unconventional Democrat push for a federal proper to limitless abortion on demand up to date of delivery and even after delivery.” Mr. Vance known as Mr. Trump “essentially the most pro-family, most pro-life American president of our lifetimes.” The crowd roared.
In selecting Mr. Kennedy as well being secretary, Mr. Trump took a threat that he would alienate these supporters.
Instead, two main anti-abortion teams, Students for Life of America and Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, have averted taking a place on Mr. Kennedy. The president of the march, Jeanne F. Mancini, has recommended Mr. Kennedy. Anti-abortion senators, together with Tommy Tuberville of Alabama and Josh Hawley of Missouri, have embraced Mr. Kennedy, who reassured them that he would help Mr. Trump’s anti-abortion agenda.
The man who solid that agenda throughout the first Trump administration, Roger Severino, has given Mr. Kennedy his full-throated help. As chief of the Office for Civil Rights inside the Department of Health and Human Services, Mr. Severino coined a brand new identify for the company: “the Department of Life.” He drafted the part on abortion in Project 2025, the Heritage Foundation’s pre-election blueprint for the Trump presidency.
“I’m assured Bobby Kennedy might be confirmed and restore President Trump’s stellar pro-life document from his first time period,” Mr. Severino mentioned in a textual content message. “He acknowledges that abortion is a tragedy and is surrounding himself with confirmed conservatives who will roll again Biden’s radical and unpopular abortion insurance policies with dispatch.”
Representative Robert B. Aderholt, Republican of Alabama and the chairman of the conservative House Values Action Team, mentioned in an interview that whereas he understood Mr. Pence’s reluctance, he was not involved about Mr. Kennedy turning into well being secretary. “I’ve gotten the impression that his focus just isn’t going to be a lot on a pro-abortion agenda,” Mr. Aderholt mentioned.
Mr. Kennedy’s pronouncements on abortion have been all around the map. In 2023, when he was working for president, Mr. Kennedy mentioned he would help a federal ban on abortion after the primary trimester of being pregnant, then shortly backtracked. In May, whereas nonetheless a candidate, he posted a prolonged message on social media outlining his views.
“I help the rising consensus that abortion must be unrestricted up till a sure level,” he wrote. “I consider that time must be when the infant is viable exterior the womb.”
Now, in an effort to get confirmed, Mr. Kennedy is making particular coverage commitments. According to Mr. Hawley, Mr. Kennedy pledged to reverse a rule issued by the Biden administration that protected sufferers who’ve had abortions, and likewise promised that “all of his deputies” on the Department of Health and Human Services would oppose abortion.
He additionally pledged to reinstate protections for well being care employees who refuse to carry out abortions due to their very own objections, Mr. Hawley mentioned on social media. And, Mr. Hawley mentioned, Mr. Kennedy helps barring clinics funded by the 55-year-old Title X Family Planning Program from discussing abortion with sufferers. Federal legislation already bars Title X clinics from referring sufferers to abortion suppliers.
Mr. Tuberville additionally got here away happy after his assembly with Mr. Kennedy. “He’s telling all people, ‘Listen, no matter President Trump — I’m going to again him 100%,’” he instructed reporters.
Mr. Pence has been on the outs with Mr. Trump since Jan. 6, 2021, when he presided over congressional certification of the 2020 election outcomes because the Capitol was below assault from a pro-Trump mob.
His battle with fellow Republicans has turned private. Katie Miller, a former Pence aide who’s now Mr. Kennedy’s spokeswoman, launched a stinging assault in opposition to her former boss on social media final week, accusing Mr. Pence of firing her when her daughter was 2 months previous as a result of her husband, Stephen Miller, labored for Mr. Trump.
“The American People clearly don’t care a single iota what Mike Pence has to say — he resoundingly misplaced to President Trump,” she wrote. “Our nation has moved on and it’s time he does too. He’s nothing however a footnote of American historical past.”
Mr. Trump has been strolling a fragile line on abortion for the reason that Supreme Court overturned Roe. He has mentioned the matter must be left to the states and has tried to keep away from it. On Thursday, he pardoned 23 anti-abortion protesters, together with some convicted of blockading a clinic.
Abortion opponents have argued that if Mr. Kennedy goes to be well being secretary, it’s incumbent on the president to nominate different abortion foes to key positions contained in the Department of Health and Human Services. But they’ve stopped in need of talking out in opposition to Mr. Kennedy.
“While I disagree with President Trump about whether or not abortion is a federal and state or a state-only problem, pro-life Americans can work with this staff,” Kristan Hawkins, the president of Students for Life of America, wrote final month in The Federalist, a conservative on-line journal.
On Thursday, earlier than the march, Mr. Pence’s group tried once more to stir opposition to Mr. Kennedy, issuing a public letter emphasizing his rejection of vaccines and different unorthodox insurance policies.
“RFK Jr. has supported harmful health-related conspiracy theories, abortion-on-demand, and growing entry to psychedelics,” Mr. Chapman and one other prime adviser to Mr. Pence, Marc Short, wrote on social media. “Senators should method this choice with clear eyes and reject his nomination to be the Secretary of Health and Human Services.”
