Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has broken with the Democratic Party on any number of issues, but he apparently went too far by coming out in favor of federal gestational limits on abortion.
Hours after Mr. Kennedy said he supports banning abortion after the first three months of pregnancy, a stance backed by most U.S. voters, his campaign walked it back by saying he “misunderstood” the question on the campaign trail in Des Moines, Iowa.
“Mr. Kennedy misunderstood a question posed to him by [an] NBC reporter in a crowded, noisy exhibit hall at the Iowa State Fair,” said the campaign in a Sunday night statement titled “Kennedy Clarifies Position on Abortion.”
“Mr. Kennedy’s position on abortion is that it is always the woman’s right to choose. He does not support legislation banning abortion,” said the unsigned statement.
In the Sunday morning interview, however, the long-shot candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination showed no signs of confusion.
“I believe that the decision to abort a child should be up to the woman during the first three months of life,” said Mr. Kennedy as shown in a video posted online on NBC News.
NBC reporter Ali Vitali asked: “So you would cap it at 15 weeks? Or 21 weeks?” Mr. Kennedy replied in the affirmative, saying, “Yes. Three months.”
She summed it up: “So three months. You would sign a federal cap on that?” The candidate said, “Yes, I would.”
Mr. Kennedy went on to explain his reasoning: “Once a child is viable outside the womb, I think the state has an interest in protecting that child.”
Not everyone was buying the campaign’s explanation for the switcheroo.
“RFK Jr.’s Campaign Says He ‘Misunderstood’ Abortion Question That He Clearly Understood,” said the headline in the left-wing outlet Jezebel.
RFK Jr. tells an MSNBC reporter that he supports a federal abortion ban after three months. pic.twitter.com/MmFh3Kn9gN
— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) August 14, 2023
The campaign’s reversal came shortly after Mr. Kennedy drew praise from Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America President Marjorie Dannenfelser, who called him “one of the few prominent Democrats aligned with the consensus of the people today.”
Ms. Dannenfelser said Monday that it “seems clear someone told Kennedy to step back in line.”
She and other pro-life advocates characterized the abrupt about-face as the latest evidence of the Democratic Party’s rigid all-or-nothing stance on pregnancy termination.
“Kennedy is no staunch pro-life advocate. He merely expressed the consensus of Americans — and a majority of rank-and-file Democrats — that unborn babies should be protected at least when they feel pain by 15 weeks,” said Ms. Dannenfelser. “Yet most Democrat leaders refuse to name any protections they support for babies or their mothers.”
A Cygnal poll released last week found 56% of U.S. voters support a federal limit of 15 weeks’ gestation for abortions, while 23% opposed it and 21% were unsure, a finding consistent with past surveys.
In June, a Gallup poll showed 69% of Americans think abortion should be legal in the first trimester, but only 37% supported keeping it legal in the second trimester, a figure that dropped to 22% in the third trimester.
Such polling would appear to favor Republicans, but Democrats have countered by avoiding mentions of specific abortion restrictions, a strategy that has so far proved effective.
Pro-choice advocates have won every abortion-related state initiative battle in the last year, most recently in Ohio, where they defeated a proposed ballot measure earlier this month.
“Debating weeks is not where we want to be,” longtime Democrat pollster Celinda Lake said last year, according to The New York Times. “People are terrible at math and terrible at biology.”
RFK Jr.’s Abortion Fallout Shows Dem Party’s Extremism, Intolerance of Debate
— SBA Pro-Life America (@sbaprolife) August 14, 2023
Hours after @RobertKennedyJr stated he would sign a federal limit on abortion at or around 3 months of pregnancy, his campaign took those comments back.
Read more ⬇️https://t.co/WifMAERO7A
Ms. Dannenfelser said Democrats have been instructed to “avoid discussing milestones that humanize the child in the womb at all costs, and instead to paint their Republican opponents as the extremists.”
“This speaks volumes about the radical abortion lobby’s grip on party leadership and consultants,” she said. “The voters deserve to hear directly from Kennedy on where he really stands given the conflicting statements from him versus his campaign.”
Mr. Kennedy’s initial support for a 15-week gestational cut-off put him in line with a number of Republicans, including Sen. Lindsey Graham, South Carolina Republican, who introduced a bill last year banning most abortions after 15 weeks gestation.
Former Vice President Mike Pence, a candidate for the GOP presidential nod, expressed support in June for the 15-week limit as a “nationwide minimum standard.”
Mr. Kennedy, an outspoken vaccine skeptic and scion of the storied Kennedy political clan, trails President Biden in the polls by an average of 50 percentage points, according to RealClearPolitics.
• Valerie Richardson can be reached at vrichardson@washingtontimes.com.
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