Liam Conner
Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. once again reversed his stance on the government’s limits on abortion access in a social media post Friday night prompted by criticism from his own campaign.
During an interview with podcaster Sage Steele, a former ESPN host, Kennedy said Wednesday that she opposed any government restrictions on abortion, “even full-term.”
But after facing pressure from his campaign team, Kennedy walked back his earlier statement, taking to social media write that “abortion should be legal up to a certain number of weeks and restricted after that.”
The independent said he now supports abortion up to the point of fetal viability, and that he changed his mind because “he was willing to listen.”
Kennedy’s sudden U-turn on abortion rights follows a post on social media from campaign adviser Angela Stanton King, who said she was surprised to learn of Kennedy’s support for late-term abortions after his appearance Wednesday night. She then said she would accompany the candidate.
Hours before Kennedy released his latest stance on abortion rights, Stanton King posted a video on X in which she said that “after a lot of back and forth, and not just by me but also by people in the campaign, we have all come to an agreement that late-term abortion is not something this campaign will support.”
Stanton King wasn’t the only member of Kennedy’s campaign circle to be surprised.
Nicole Shanahan, his running mate, had her own sit with Steele, which was released a week before Kennedy’s interview. Shanahan revealed that he did not know that Kennedy was against limits on abortion.
“My understanding of Bobby’s position is that, you know, every abortion is a tragedy, it’s a loss of life,” Shanahan said. “My understanding is that he absolutely believes in the limits of abortion, and we’ve talked about that. I don’t think, I don’t know where that came from.”
“That’s not my understanding of his position and I think maybe there was a miscommunication there,” she added.
In response to the inconsistency between Kennedy and Shanahan, the campaign told CBS News in a statement Thursday that Kennedy believed “Mom has the final say,” before Kennedy changed her mind again Friday night.
This is not the first case in which Kennedy has changed his position on limits on abortion. Last year, Kennedy initially told NBC News at the Iowa State Fair that he would support a federal ban on abortion after three months of pregnancy. Hours later, his campaign released a statement clarifying that Kennedy does not support legislation banning abortion.
