RFK Jr’s key campaign pledges as he comes out in full support of abortion

Robert F Kennedy Jr, an independent presidential candidate, appears to be at odds with his running mate this week over abortion policy.

Nicole Shanahan, his pick for vice president, announced she plans to donate to a staunch abortion opponent in GOP Representative Thomas Massie of Kentucky. This announcement comes after the duo both said the government should not regulate abortions.

But throughout his campaign, the nephew of President John F Kennedy has outlined several policies — many of which have generated backlash from political opponents and subject-matter experts.

Here’s a breakdown of three major policy proposals from the RFK Jr-Shanahan campaign as we approach the 2024 election:

Abortion

RFK Jr’s position on abortion — a keystone issue in the upcoming presidential election after the Supreme Court gave states the power to ban it in 2022 — has been somewhat hazy.

On Thursday, RFK Jr told NBC News that he believes the government should not dictate abortion policy and that reproductive rights should be decided by individual women.

“I think we have to leave it to the women rather than the state,” RFK Jr told the outlet when asked if he endorsed allowing full-term abortions.

Last year, RFK Jr told the same outlet he would want to ban abortions for women who have been pregnant for more than three months. However, NBC News said his campaign later walked back the comments, saying he doesn’t support legislation banning abortion.

On his website, RFK Jr says he will champion a “massive subsidized healthcare initiative,” which he suggests will “dramatically reduce” the number of abortions in the US.

“A lot of women, when they get pregnant, feel they can’t afford to have a baby. There isn’t a lot of support to raise a child in this society...We have to make our society as welcoming as possible to children and to motherhood,” his website reads.

By contrast, Ms Shanahan has previously said that she rejects “anyone” having control over women’s bodies while maintaining she does not “feel right” about terminating a pregnancy if both the mother and baby are healthy.

Healthcare

RFK Jr often touts that he wants to “end the chronic disease epidemic.”

“The current generation is the sickest in American history,” the candidate writes on his website. “When John F. Kennedy was president, 6% of American kids had a chronic health condition. Today it is 60%.”

The independent candidate vows to invest government funds in further research on chronic diseases. RFK Jr also says he will support a transition from a “toxic, degenerative industrial food system to an organic, regenerative system of agriculture.”

Despite his concern over chronic health conditions, the candidate is also a staunch opponent of the Covid-19 vaccine and has spread misinformation about its safety and efficacy.

RFK Jr’s organisation, Children’s Health Defense, has advocated against vaccinations, including by spreading the baseless claim that vaccines cause autism. In his book, The Real Anthony Fauci, RFK Jr also falsely claimed that Anthony Fauci colluded with Microsoft founder Bill Gates to exaggerate the extent of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Spreading this misinformation resulted in Meta deactivating his Instagram account in 2021.

He also spread a baseless, racist and antisemitic conspiracy theory about the Covid-19 virus last year, claiming the virus targets “Caucasians and Black people” while “Ashkenazi Jews and [Chinese people]” are the most immune.

“The claim that Covid-19 was a bioweapon created by the Chinese or Jews to attack Caucasians and Black people is deeply offensive and feeds into sinophobic and antisemitic conspiracy theories,” according to a statement from the Anti-Defamation League at the time.

The climate crisis

RFK Jr, a former environmental lawyer, claims he will be the “best environmental president in American history.”

“As an independent, Kennedy will break through the divisive political arguments that keep us distracted while Republicans and Democrats allow corporate interests to strip-mine our natural heritage,” his website reads.

His proposed policies include reducing toxic chemical pollution, protecting wildlife from “corporate abuse,” adopting an improved wildfire management plan, and ending “the corporate capture of environmental regulatory agencies.”

However, his colleagues in the field have told a different story.

Last month, twelve environmental groups published an open letter calling for Americans to “reject” RFK Jr and “the toxic beliefs he promotes before it’s too late.” The list of co-signers includes the political arm of the Natural Resources Defense Council, where Mr Kennedy used to work.

Erich Pica, executive director of the co-signing organisation Friends of the Earth, said it is rare for so many environmental organisations to come together on a specific issue.

“You don’t see that many open letters, with that many groups, representing that spectrum of the community, all saying the same thing in unison at the same time,” Mr Pica told The Independent in April.

RFK Jr has also made enemies in environmental circles after criticising President Joe Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act, a landmark piece of climate legislation that funnelled billions towards diverse green-energy projects.