CNN
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Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s working mate, Nicole Shanahan, says their marketing campaign helps federal limits limiting abortion entry “between 15 and 18 weeks” of gestation, the newest assertion on the difficulty after the marketing campaign walked back recent comments made by Kennedy in opposition to authorities limits on abortion.
Shanahan mentioned in an interview on the “Cartier Household” podcast launched Wednesday that the Kennedy marketing campaign “very a lot helps limits” on abortion entry, explaining that the impartial presidential candidate arrived on the place after conversations with each abortion rights advocates and anti-abortion supporters on his marketing campaign.
“The marketing campaign stance proper now may be very a lot, you already know, phrases and limits, and the marketing campaign very a lot helps limits on abortion,” she mentioned.
When requested at what interval the Kennedy marketing campaign would need to set limits on abortion, Shanahan responded, “It, you already know, strikes round between 15 and 18 weeks.”
Shanahan’s feedback are solely the newest within the Kennedy’s marketing campaign’s altering viewpoints on abortion, which have ranged from whole opposition to authorities limits to help for abortion restrictions within the closing months of being pregnant in keeping with the framework created via Roe v. Wade.
Kennedy mentioned in a podcast interview launched final week that he opposes any government limits on abortion access. When requested if he supported maintaining abortion authorized “even when it’s full time period” – referring to the opportunity of an abortion close to the anticipated supply date of a kid – Kennedy responded affirmatively.
His feedback impressed blowback from the anti-abortion group Susan B. Anthony Professional-Life America, which mentioned his feedback made him “unacceptable to million of pro-life voters nationwide.”
Angela Stanton King, a Kennedy marketing campaign adviser who has guided him on abortion insurance policies, prison justice and Black voter outreach, publicly denounced Kennedy’s feedback in social media posts.
Kennedy subsequently walked again his remark the next day after talking with marketing campaign employees, together with Stanton King. In a social media post clarifying his place, he mentioned “abortion must be authorized up till a sure variety of weeks” and that abortion must be restricted “within the closing months of being pregnant.”
In his assertion, Kennedy didn’t say what he believed to be an applicable restrict on abortion entry however indicated help for restrictions primarily based on the framework created via Roe v. Wade, which established a constitutional proper to abortion earlier than fetal viability. Most experts say fetal viability happens at round 23 to 24 weeks of gestation.
“I help the rising consensus that abortion must be unrestricted up till a sure level. I consider that time must be when the child is viable exterior the womb,” Kennedy mentioned within the assertion final week. “Subsequently I might enable applicable restrictions on abortion within the closing months of being pregnant, simply as Roe v. Wade did.”
Kennedy himself beforehand expressed help for a federal abortion restriction at three months whereas he was working for president as a Democrat final 12 months, however his marketing campaign rapidly walked again that place.
Within the new interview, Shanahan additionally expressed help for particular person states deciding on abortion entry, echoing Kennedy’s skepticism of the federal authorities regulating well being care. However she mentioned she’s involved state-level abortion restrictions may make the difficulty “over-politicized.”
“I believe that the development in the direction of, you already know, states making these selections is nice. The factor that makes me apprehensive in these situations is it changing into, once more, over-politicized for election causes, after which swinging too far,” she mentioned. “As a result of, you already know, even very spiritual folks on this nation felt that, you already know, the general political politicization of this concern has led to stances which have been extra excessive than they even supposed.”
Democrats have seized on Shanahan’s openness to letting particular person states decide abortion entry. Lis Smith, who’s main the efforts to fight third-party candidates on the Democratic Nationwide Committee, blasted the Kennedy-Shanahan ticket for being untrustworthy on the difficulty of reproductive rights.
“Wow. When Nicole Shanahan sees state after state banning abortion, she thinks it’s ‘good.’ This after Robert Kennedy Jr. mentioned he would signal a nationwide abortion ban. They CANNOT be trusted on abortion rights,” Smith wrote on social media Thursday.
Shanahan fired again, accusing Smith of “taking low cost photographs” at her and misrepresenting her coverage place.
“I mentioned permitting communities to work it out for themselves is nice. Bringing girls’s alternative nearer to girls is a constructive factor,” Shanahan responded. “Let’s agree that girls in our age group are struggling to construct the households they need and do one thing about that, quite than airlifting one phrase from a two-minute video and taking low cost photographs.”
A press release from the DNC later accused Kennedy of hiding from his “abortion extremism” whereas highlighting state-level abortion restrictions that, the committee asserted, places “girls’s lives in danger.”
“Kicking it all the way down to the states has led to harmful abortion bans from Alabama to North Dakota, placing girls’s lives in danger and ripping away entry to care,” the assertion learn.
CNN’s Eva McKend contributed to this report.