Mike Pence on Monday referred to as for Health and Human Companies Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to resign amid controversy over how Kennedy has dealt with the division’s security evaluation of the abortion tablet.
“Secretary Kennedy should step aside and give President Trump the opportunity to select a new HHS Secretary who will deliver pro-life results for the American people!” the previous vp mentioned in a Monday assertion.
Advancing American Freedom Basis, a right-wing political group based by Pence, launched a memo on Monday detailing why Kennedy ought to step down, and painted the HHS secretary as a “progressive wolf in pro-life sheep’s clothing.”
“Republicans gave RFK Jr a chance and he has failed,” the memo, first reported by Actual Clear Politics, reads. “RFK Jr was confirmed under the belief that he would protect vulnerable women and children ― not to pursue four more years of progressive pro-abortion policies at HHS. RFK Jr. must go.”
Kennedy and Marty Makary, the pinnacle of the Meals and Drug Administration, introduced in June that the company would conduct a brand new evaluation of the abortion tablet mifepristone regardless of the drug’s 25-year security document. The choice to evaluation mifepristone got here after a monthslong stress marketing campaign from anti-abortion teams who argue that mifepristone is harmful and ought to be a lot tougher to entry.
Final week, Pence joined a refrain of anti-abortion organizations calling for Makary to step down within the wake of a Bloomberg report alleging the commissioner is slow-walking a review of mifepristone.
Pence’s new demand for Kennedy to step down further solidifies the growing divide on the right between devout anti-abortion Evangelicals and the Trump administration. President Donald Trump ― who once bragged about appointing the three conservative Supreme Court Justices that repealed Roe v. Wade ― changed his tune on abortion ahead of the 2025 presidential election and has since attempted to appear middle of the road on reproductive health issues.
“Mike Pence dreams of the day when his unsolicited opinions make him slightly relevant again. Today, however, is not that day,” White Home spokesperson Kush Desai advised HuffPost.
The White Home defended Makary in an announcement to HuffPost final week.
Many years of analysis present that mifepristone is extraordinarily secure and efficient when utilized in a two-drug routine with one other remedy referred to as misoprostol. When used collectively, mifepristone and misoprostol are more than 95% effective.
Abortion rights teams, together with main mainstream medical organizations, have argued that the protection evaluation of mifepristone is politically motivated to additional limit abortion entry within the U.S. Abortion opponents advocating for the evaluation have largely pointed to a junk science report published earlier this year by an anti-abortion think tank. Advancing American Freedom included the report in their Monday memo as the basis for the mifepristone safety review.
