Kelly Baden (Vice President for Public Policy) warns that Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s appointment as HHS Secretary gives him broad power over agencies critical to reproductive health, raising concerns about potential restrictions on medication abortion despite decades of evidence proving its safety and effectiveness.
RFK Jr. confirmed as Secretary of HHS: What it means for abortion access in the US
Transcript: In case you missed it, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was officially appointed as the Secretary of the US department of Health and Human Services, or HHS. He will now oversee more than a dozen operating divisions within HHS, including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the Food and Drug Administration and the National Institutes of Health.
All of these agencies are tasked with the broad mission of enhancing the health and well-being of all Americans. So what does that mean for our sexual and reproductive health and rights? With all of these agencies under his control, RFK Jr. has the power to influence medical research and public health information about contraception, abortion and more.
This is especially concerning given he has a dangerous history of rejecting scientific evidence. One way RFK Jr. could target reproductive rights is by restricting access to medication abortion. During his confirmation hearing, he indicated that he would do as President Trump instructed and study the safety of mifepristone, which is one of two drugs in the most m common medication abortion regimen used here in the US. Well, the good news is scientists have studied the safety of mifepristone for over 25 years and the evidence is crystal clear.
Mifepristone and medication abortion is safe and effective. Medication abortion is also an incredibly common and critical part of abortion care. Now our researchers found that in 2023, medication abortion accounted for nearly 2/3 of all US abortions. So it is no surprise that anti-abortion lawmakers want to restrict access to this essential type of care and targeting medication abortion, including by ignoring rigorous and reliable evidence and by spreading misinformation, is just one prong of the anti-abortion movement's long term agenda to attack and restrict our bodily autonomy.
The bottom line? The Department of Health and Human Services must prioritize scientific evidence over political ideology. To learn more about how HHS and other federal agencies might impact our reproductive health and rights, head to guttmacher.org or click the link in bio.