(Robert Jonathan, Headline USA) Biden climate czar John Kerry—the former Massachusetts senator, failed Democrat presidential candidate and habitual waffler—is well known to have idolized the Kennedy family. Now, it seems, a Kennedy is borrowing a page from Kerry’s political playbook.
Current Democrat presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. may have been for abortion restrictions before he was against them.
During a back and forth at the Iowa State Fair on Sunday, Kennedy told an NBC reporter that if he becomes president, he would be willing to sign federal legislation banning abortion after three months into a pregnancy.
The celebrated vaccine skeptic, whom critics have labeled a conspiracy theorist, argued that, as a practical matter, most abortions were performed in the first trimester anyway.
“I believe that a decision to abort a child should [be] up to the women during the first three months of life,” he noted.
“Once a child is viable outside the womb, I think then the state has an interest in protecting that child,” he continued. “… I’m for medical freedom. Individuals are able to make their own choices…I think the states have a right to protect a child once the child becomes viable…”
Here’s the full exchange with Kennedy, in which I ask the questions multiple times to make sure we’re understanding- even at one point saying I was surprised by the stance.
Full story here and video TK: https://t.co/NHWNhlaLL5 https://t.co/t9NbrnqRG4 pic.twitter.com/U9FBPDNY2A
— Ali Vitali (@alivitali) August 14, 2023
The Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision last year returned abortion regulation to the states after 50 years of court-imposed fiat. However, the issue remains far from resolved, with Democrats hoping it will become a rallying cry at both the state and federal level.
Republicans, meanwhile, remain largely divided over whether to pursue federal legislation that would ban abortion altogether or to continue allowing each state to make its own determination on the legality of slaughtering innocent babes in the womb.
Following his remarks, RFK Jr.’s campaign issued a clarification of sorts.
“Today, Mr. Kennedy misunderstood a question posed to him by a NBC reporter in a crowded, noisy exhibit hall at the Iowa State Fair,” it said in a statement.
“Mr. Kennedy’s position on abortion is that it is always the woman’s right to choose,” it continued. “He does not support legislation banning abortion.”
Kennedy’s campaign issues a “clarification,” not attributed to him, which states that he didn’t mean to give the answer that he gave: https://t.co/itR3AfN7VD pic.twitter.com/OWjOi1f07B
— Edward-Isaac Dovere (@IsaacDovere) August 14, 2023
Returning to a pro-abortion position after a “misunderstanding,” though, the dark-horse primary contender is unlikely to have endeared himself to much of the Democrat base, which seems to consider abortion on demand perhaps another form of settled science.
Even with his liberal bona fides, as a free speech advocate who also champions medical freedom, RFK Jr. is already seldom on the same page with the pro-Biden, pro-establishment contingent.
In the NBC video, it seems evident that RFK Jr. uncharacteristically hesitated in the way he answered the reporter’s line of questioning on this hot-button issue.
Whether he was being set up is a matter of speculation.
That aside, the conversation may be a reasonable reflection of how many Americans are conflicted about this sensitive, personal issue given the politicized media’s simplistic attempt to push everyone into either the pro-abortion or pro-life camp.
In late July, RFK Jr. reversed course on another issue: the need for an investigation into Biden family corruption allegations.
“[W]e really need a real investigation of what happened,” the candidate told Fox News/Fox Business anchor Maria Bartiromo.
