RFK Jr. says he’d sign a federal ban on abortions after three months of pregnancy

DES MOINES, IOWA— Longshot Democratic presidential candidate and conspiracy theorist Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said Sunday that he would support a national ban on abortion after the first three months of pregnancy if elected. 

“I believe a decision to abort a child should be up to the women during the first three months of life,” Kennedy told NBC News in an interview at the Iowa State Fair here. Pressed on if that meant signing a federal ban at 15 or 21 weeks, he said yes.

“Once a child is viable, outside the womb, I think then the state has an interest in protecting the child,” he said, adding “I’m for medical freedom. Individuals are able to make their own choices.”

The stance puts Kennedy — who’s mounting a controversial bid to unseat President Joe Biden as the Democratic standard bearer in 2024 — out of step with most of his party at a time when abortion access has been a sustained motivator for voters.

Kennedy defended running as a Democrat, despite espousing multiple typically-conservative talking points during the 15-minute interview.

For instance, Kennedy said he would not have voted to support the Inflation Reduction Act, among the biggest Democratic policy wins of Biden’s first term. Asked about the hundreds of billions of dollars in investments to fight climate change in the legislation, Kennedy said: “They say that this is fighting climate change; it’s actually doing the opposite.”

Kennedy steeply trails Biden in the polls and has been dogged by controversy during his few months as a candidate, including repeated disinformation about the efficacy of vaccinations and deaths during the Covid-19 pandemic, as well as allegations of anti-Semitic remarks.  

While he agreed that former President Donald Trump had lost the 2020 election, he posited that “elections can get stolen in this country.” Asked if he thinks Trump tried to overturn the election results after losing, Kennedy said based on what he’s seen, “it seems like he was trying to overturn it.”

But he added that indictments themselves are not disqualifying: “Convictions might, but indictments don’t. I think we’re living in a weird period of history right now.”