Robert F. Kennedy Jr. stated in an interview that he believes abortion should be legal up until full term and that the decision should be left up to the woman without government involvement.
When questioned if he supports abortion at full term, Kennedy acknowledged the argument that the state has an interest in protecting a fully formed fetus but said he doesn’t trust the state and believes women should have autonomy over the decision.
“I don’t think any woman through history has ever said I’m going to have a baby; I’m going to get pregnant and carry that baby to eight months of term and then I’m gonna terminate the pregnancy,” Kennedy said. “I don’t think anybody wants to do that.”
“That has happened too many times to count though,” Sage Steele said.
“I’m sure that has happened; I would say that in almost all those cases there’s extenuating circumstances,” Kennedy said.
“But who knows? Especially when there’s drugs involved and people aren’t thinking clearly. At the end of the day, it is happening,” Steele said.
Kennedy said there may always be instances of “bad things happening” regardless of abortion laws.
He concluded that abortion should be legal up to full term and that the decision is up to the woman.
“What I’m saying is I don’t think any woman sets out saying, ‘I’m going to carry a baby for eight months and abort him,’” Kennedy said.
“Sure, but they could change their minds at eight months. And this is what they’ve seen. So should they be allowed to do it full-term?” Steele asked.
“Again, I respect people who — I think there’s a very, very good argument, a compelling argument that the state has [an] interest in protecting a fully-formed fetus; I absolutely think that that argument is very convincing,” Kennedy said. “Again, I’m down to the fact that I don’t trust the state and I think we need to trust the woman. And I don’t think that that’s a satisfactory outcome, because I think there’s always gonna be instances where bad things happen.”
“Yes, we can’t prevent that,” Steele said.
“Either way, there’s gonna be bad things that happen,” Kennedy said.
“So, in other words, keeping it as is, with Roe v. Wade having been overturned and leaving it up to the states to determine if and when a woman can have an abortion?” Steele asked.
“No, I wouldn’t leave it to the states,” Kennedy said.
“You would say completely, it’s up to the woman —” Steele said.
“I would say it’s up to the woman,” Kennedy cut in. “We shouldn’t have government involved.”
“Even if it’s full-term?” Steele asked.
“Even if it’s full-term,” Kennedy said.
This differs from a previous statement where he had supported a ban after the first three months of pregnancy.
