In an interview posted on on Tuesday, Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said that he’s changed his position on third-trimester abortions. This came after he said in an interview that he supports a woman's right to abortion through all nine months of pregnancy.
Kennedy made the remarks in an interview with comedians Shane Gillis and Matt McCusker this week.
"There's no way you can change my mind by calling me names or criticizing me or by marginalizing or vilifying me. But, you can always change my mind with facts,” Kennedy said. “If you […] show me I'm wrong about one of my presumptions, I'm gonna change my mind. And that's what happened with the abortion thing."
“My position on abortion was that it should always be a woman’s choice right up to the very end, and my assumption was that any abortion that occurs during that ninth month, in ninth month, you’re basically killing a child. My presumption was any abortion, no woman’s going to deliberately carry a child for nine months and then two days before it’s born, abort it. Who would do that? It can only be in instances where the mother’s life was at stake, or there was some other overwhelming medical issue involved and that it shouldn’t be up to a bureaucrat or the state to dictate the outcome of those kind of decisions,” Kennedy said.
“But, then I learned I was wrong, that there are actually a huge amount, comparatively, of elective abortions at that time. And so, my belief at that time is that at that time you have a wholly formed, viable child and the state has some interest in protecting that baby."
“My family is split about this, about right to life and right to choice,” Kennedy acknowledged. “I think the woman should always choose but in this case if it’s a fully formed baby, then the state does have some interest in protecting that life.”
Last week, Townhall covered how Kennedy said in an interview with Sage Steele published Wednesday that he supports a woman’s right to end her unborn child’s life up to the point of birth.
“Should there be a limit or are you saying all the way up to full term, a woman has a right to have an abortion?” Steele asked Kennedy in the interview.
Kennedy responded that he does not think any woman “wants” an abortion in the final weeks of pregnancy, but that the government should not be involved in protecting unborn life at that stage.
“I wouldn't leave it [abortion] to the states…My belief is we should leave it to the woman, we shouldn’t have government involved,” Kennedy said.
“Even if it’s full-term?” Steele pressed.
“Even if it’s full-term,” Kennedy responded.
BREAKING: Robert Kennedy Jr. endorses abortions up to birth.
— LifeNews.com (@LifeNewsHQ) May 9, 2024
"Even if it's full term."https://t.co/2VFOBxzChb pic.twitter.com/1xkzmDkwKt
According to NBC News, Kennedy’s running mate Nicole Shanahan said, “My understanding with Bobby’s position is that, you know, every abortion is a tragedy, is a loss of life.”
“My understanding is that he absolutely believes in limits on abortion, and we’ve talked about this. I do not think, I don’t know where that came from,” she added in response to his remarks on abortion.