Each week, the Center for Reproductive Rights will preview the Senate confirmation hearings for Trump nominees who pose a threat to reproductive rights. Research, legislative records, public statements, and more can be found at Repro Red Flags: Agency Watch.
Confirmation Hearings This Week: 1/27 - 2/2
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January 29 (Senate Finance) and 30 (Senate HELP): HHS Secretary - Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.
In This Role He Could:
- Fund fake abortion clinics through the Title X program, diverting funds away from real medical centers that provide birth control, STD testing, abortion services, etc.
- Restrict coverage for birth control and Plan B for more than 16 million women of reproductive age enrolled in Medicaid.
- Steer the FDA to make it much harder to access abortion pills nationwide by reinstating old regulations on mifepristone or rescinding approval altogether.
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Red Flags:
- Frequently repeats anti-abortion talking points stigmatizing abortions later in pregnancy.
- Has major ties to the anti-science community and founded the leading vaccine disinformation organization.
- Has said he wants to ban abortion after a certain point in pregnancy, a view that has no basis in medicine or science.
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At Last Week's Hearings:
- Doug Collins (Secretary of Veterans Affairs nominee) refused to answer whether a veteran who is raped in Texas would be able to get an abortion at a VA health care facility. He repeatedly indicated he would enforce a decades-old, obsolete law (Veterans Health Care Act of 1992) banning the VA from providing any abortion care.
- Russell Vought (Office of Management and Budget nominee) said he will implement the president's anti-abortion agenda, and stated that President Trump is against exceptions to abortion bans for rape, incest, or life of the pregnant person.
- Marco Rubio was confirmed as Secretary of State, where he is expected to implement the Global Gag Rule, limiting abortion access worldwide.
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