Today, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. began his two-day hearing in front of the United States Senate to defend his nomination to become the head of the Department of Health and Human Services by President Donald Trump. Kennedy, the face of the “Make America Healthy Again” movement, holds controversial opinions on many public health matters, such as vaccine skepticism, removing fluoride from water, and drinking raw milk. If confirmed in this role, Kennedy will oversee many powerful federal agencies, including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Food and Drug Administration, the National Institutes of Health, and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
The topics covered in the hearing were wide-ranging—regenerative farming, vaccines, autism, whether or not Kennedy compared the CDC to Nazi death camps—but many female senators were quick to bring up another major talking point: bodily autonomy and a woman’s right to make her own medical decisions. Here are some women who broached the subject and how the conversations fared.
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Senator Maggie Hassan of New Hampshire
During her five-minute questioning, Senator Maggie Hassan of New Hampshire chose to focus her questioning on abortion—and specifically Kennedy’s contradictory stance on the issue. Senator Hassan cited two different instances where Kennedy went on the record as being pro-choice. “Mr. Kennedy, I am confused,” she began. “You have clearly stated in the past that bodily autonomy is one of your core values. The question is do you stand for that value or not? When was it that you decided to sell out the values that you have had your whole life in order to be given power by President Trump?”
