Q&A: Sen. Lankford exchange with Robert F. Kennedy Jr. during confirmation hearings

Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. is President Donald Trump’s nominee to be Secretary of Health and Human Services. Kennedy sat through the first of two confirmation hearings Wednesday morning.

He was questioned by members of the Senate Finance Committee, including Oklahoma Senator James Lankford. On Thursday, he will go before the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions.

The following is a transcription of a portion of Senator Lankford’s Q&A with Kennedy during Wednesday morning’s hearing:

SEN. LANKFORD:

I do wanna talk to you about some areas that you and I have talked about, as well… we have some disagreements, you and I, on the issue of life and when life begins. You’ve been very outspoken on that, and we’ve had some good opportunities to be able to talk about that. Title 10 is specifically in the HHS area. This has been an area that has been interpreted for a long time and President Trump, in the first administration, interpreted that rule to say that his administration will prohibit the performance, referral for, promotion of abortion, as a part of the title 10 program -- he made that very clear in the first administration. Obviously, that’s his decision to make again on that, how he wants to handle that, and he’s made a lot of public statements on that. The Biden administration not only reversed that, not only rescinded that rule, but they went one step the other direction. In my state in Oklahoma, as you and I have talked about, the Biden administration cut off funding to the state of Oklahoma for AIDS testing, for breast cancer screening, and for other areas of poverty health care because my state didn't promote abortion. It wouldn't provide--if my state wouldn't promote abortion in the state, we got cut off for federal funds for AIDS testing, and for other things. My simple question to you is, how are you going to handle Title 10 on that? I saw how President Biden handled that, in the punitive measures that came on my state for those that are in rural healthcare. How are you going to handle it? 

KENNEDY: I'm going to support President Trump's policies on Title 10. I agree with President Trump that every abortion is a tragedy. I agree with him that we cannot be a moral nation if we have 1.2 million abortions a year. I agree with him that the states should control abortion. President Trump has told me that he wants to end late-term abortions, and he wants to protect conscience exemptions, and that he wants to end federal funding for abortions here or abroad, that's Title 10. I’m gonna--I serve at the pleasure of the president. I'm going to implement his policies. 

LANKFORD: Thank you for that.

President Biden, when he came in immediately, closed down the Office of Civil Rights and Conscience Protections within HHS. There's a statement that's come out recently that he's going to reopen that office again to be able to protect the civil rights of Americans. One of the things that (former HHS Secretary) Xavier Becerra did immediately when he came into HHS was conscience protections for medical professionals that were being compelled against their conscience to perform medical procedures that violated their conscience. Xavier Becerra stepped in immediately into HHS and withdrew that. And said, 'no, the federal government will tell you what you believe about these issues, you don't have conscience protections anymore,' and refused to protect those folks. Will you step in and say that healthcare individuals have the right of conscience again as the federal law allows? 

KENNEDY: Yeah, I mean, the first thing that occurs to me when you ask that question is what patient would want somebody doing a surgery on them that, you know, believes that surgery is against their conscience being forced to perform that. I don't know anybody who would want to have that, have a doctor performing a surgery that the doctor is morally opposed to. Listen, I came from a family that was split on life and choice. I have cousins today who believe that abortion at any stage is equivalent to homicide. Now, there are other people who believe the opposite. But the good thing in my family that I really loved is that we were able to have those conversations and respect each other, and I wish that we could do that nationally. And, if forcing somebody to participate in a medical procedure as a provider that they believe is murder, does not make any sense to me. We need to welcome diversity in this country. We need to respect diversity, and we need to respect each other when we have different opinions and not, you know, not force our opinions on other people.

LANKFORD: Thank you for that.

The FDA, under the Biden administration, changed the rules for the chemical abortion drug and said, you no longer need to see a physician, so if you have an ectopic pregnancy, don’t even go anymore to see a physician. But they also changed an area that has been something very particular that you’ve talked about and that’s transparency. They changed the position and said don’t tell us if there’s a side effect on this drug unless she dies. But other than that, don’t tell us anymore--literally, don’t give transparent information to the American people or to the women who take this drug anymore, we don’t want that reported. My question to you is, will FDA move to be able to give transparency to the American people and to say, this drug is no different than any other drug, we’re not going to protect it just because it’s political for some folks -- people should know side effects on this drug and there should be reporting.

KENNEDY: Yeah, I mean it’s against everything we believe in this country...that patients or doctors should not be reporting adverse events. We need to know what adverse events are, we need to understand the safety of every drug, Mifepristone and every other drug.