Yes, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is still running for President as a Democratic candidate, and yes, he just said something deeply stupid and not at all in line with Democrat policies and had to backpedal again. This time, the nepo baby candidate of the Kennedy dynasty decided to let the world know that he believed that abortion should be banned at the federal level after the first trimester. This man seriously thinks he should take President Joe Biden‘s place on the Democrat ticket in 2024. Per The New York Times:
“I believe a decision to abort a child should be up to the woman during the first three months of life,” Mr. Kennedy said.
In response to follow-up questions, Mr. Kennedy confirmed that he would sign federal restrictions after three months, which some Republicans have proposed and elected Democrats almost universally oppose. While the vast majority of abortions take place in that first-trimester window, Roe protected abortion rights until viability — the point when a fetus can survive outside the womb — which is around the end of the second trimester.
As a reminder, one of the biggest talking points of the anti-choice fascists who want to control bodily autonomy is that life begins at conception, so Kennedy’s word choice is extremely telling here. He referred to the fetus in the first trimester as being in the “first three months of life.” That is not a coincidence. Someone on his team must have gotten to him pretty quickly to remind him he was running as a Democrat because within a few hours, Kennedy released a statement backtracking on his position. Per the above source:
Hours later, Mr. Kennedy’s campaign released a statement saying he had “misunderstood a question posed to him by an NBC reporter in a crowded, noisy exhibit hall at the Iowa State Fair.”
“Mr. Kennedy’s position on abortion is that it is always the woman’s right to choose,” the statement said. “He does not support legislation banning abortion.”
On one hand, everyone needs a paycheck, but on the other hand, perhaps Kennedy’s staffers can do literally anything else than help this man have a national platform? He is, to quote The Lord of the Rings of all sources, “a lesser son of greater sires.”
In case you were wondering where Kennedy’s heart really was when he was discussing abortion, The New York Times has a transcript of Kennedy spewing his stupid views, which clearly demonstrates that he didn’t “misunderstand” the question because his position held firm despite follow-up questions:
But the video of his comments and the back-and-forth that followed show Mr. Kennedy specifying the first three months of pregnancy in his own words, and the reporter asking several follow-up questions to confirm his position.
“So you would cap it at 15 weeks?” the reporter asked.
“Yes,” Mr. Kennedy said.
“Or 21 weeks?”
“Yes, three months,” he said.
“So three months, you would sign a federal cap on that,” the reporter said.
“Yes, I would,” Mr. Kennedy said.
A spokeswoman for his campaign did not respond to questions on Monday.
How can you believe anything Kennedy says when he so clearly backtracks a view that was elaborated upon at the time—with numbers? That’s a trick question because you can’t! This man just wants to be President, he doesn’t actually want to govern.
Now, pre-2016, I would happily call out the idiocy of such a campaign and invite everyone to point and laugh. However, we all know how the idiot candidate fared in that election. (Spoiler: he won, and then went on to get impeached twice and indicted a lot after leaving office.) So I no longer feel smug doing that. Kennedy’s candidacy simply feels scary. Especially because it appears he doesn’t even understand how pregnancy works. Per The New York Times:
While there was no ambiguity in Mr. Kennedy’s declaration of support for a ban after three months, there were indications that he did not understand the timeline of pregnancy.
By way of explaining his position, he said, “Once a child is viable outside the womb, I think then the state has an interest in protecting that child.” But viability, which can vary from pregnancy to pregnancy, is generally around 24 weeks, or six months.
That’s right, he thinks a fetus is viable outside of the womb after three months, which is only 12 weeks. The earliest an infant ever survived outside of the womb is 21 weeks and four days, so the math simply doesn’t math here. Abortion is about control. Kennedy is an unserious candidate, and I urge everyone to remember that when we start voting in the Presidential primaries next year.
(featured image: M. Santiago, Getty Images)
Published: Aug 14, 2023 05:53 pm