Washington Wednesday: The pro-life strategy

LINDSAY MAST, HOST: It’s Wednesday the 29th of January.

Glad to have you along for today’s edition of The World and Everything in It. Good morning, I’m Lindsay Mast.

NICK EICHER, HOST: And I’m Nick Eicher.

This week, confirmation hearings continue—Tulsi Gabbard, Kash Patel, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. all coming to Capitol Hill. RFK’s background as a critic of vaccines concerns some in Congress, his history supporting abortion concerns others.

MAST: WORLD’s Washington Bureau reporter Carolina Lumetta has that story and others on today’s Washington Wednesday.

BANKS: Three fifth of the senators duly chosen and sworn not having voted in the affirmative, the motion is not agreed to.

CAROLINA LUMETTA: For the third time in 10 years, both chambers of Congress considered the Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act last week. It would impose fines and prison time on healthcare providers who do not care for a baby born after a failed abortion. And for the third time, the bill passed the House, but failed in the Senate on the first procedural vote.

LANKFORD: Disappointing day on the floor of the Senate yesterday, we were looking for a moment of just common sense, quite frankly,

Republican Senator James Lankford of Oklahoma held a news conference last week, lamenting the lack of senators looking for common ground on abortion legislation. I caught up with him afterward. He compared the situation to bipartisan work on the Laken Riley Act.

LANKFORD: We've had a hard time obviously finding common ground on immigration. We found an area on enforcement we could agree on, passed it, it's about to become law. We’ve got to take that next step as well on the issue about life and the value of children.

With 53 seats, the Republican majority in the Senate falls short of the 60 votes required to pass most legislation. And every Democrat voted against the Born-Alive act.

While few expected Democrats to break rank on this bill, Senator Lankford says the pro-life strategy this year will be to keep the conversation going.

LANKFORD: I refuse to not speak out for children and just have them forgotten. This is a way to be able to bring it to the forefront and say, let's talk about it as a country. Let's not just ignore this, this is happening, so let's talk about it.

Other senators want to take quicker action, using executive orders and a reconciliation process to get around the 60-vote requirement. Here’s Senator Josh Hawley of Missouri speaking to WORLD in the Capitol basement:

HAWLEY: I just think right now for the foreseeable future they're not going to come along on anything life-related, so we're going to have to try to do everything we can on reconciliation, where we can do that with 51…

Budget reconciliation bills require a simple majority to pass, but must deal with legislation related to spending. So while pro-life protections may be out, a move to cut federal funding for abortion providers like Planned Parenthood would be on the table. Hawley also says President Trump can use executive actions to enforce laws like the Hyde Amendment that bar federal dollars from paying for abortions.

HAWLEY: I've urged the president to do all of those things. So I hope that he will move on that quickly and that we can work to do what we can legislatively.

In a meeting with Trump last week, Hawley also brought up the FACE Act, a law that prohibits people from blocking entrances to abortion centers. The act also prohibits blocking houses of worship and pregnancy resource centers, but has mostly been used to prosecute pro-life protesters who pray or stand near abortion center doors. Late Thursday night, Trump pardoned 23 people sentenced to years in prison for violating the FACE Act.

SOUND: Trump signing the order - big Sharpie noises

Many of those pardoned told WORLD they are ready to hit the ground running to challenge the FACE Act in court.

GALLAGHER: Since there's no longer a constitutional right, or alleged constitutional right to kill your child.

Chet Gallagher is a member of the rescue movement, which stages sit-ins at abortion centers to convince mothers to keep their unborn babies. Gallagher was about to report to prison to serve a 16 month sentence when he received his pardon.

GALLAGHER: We were found guilty in Michigan for the violation of the FACE Act, and also had a penalty of 10 years for conspiring against rights, and so there's a major move now to repeal that law.

According to a Justice Department memo released last week, prosecutors are ordered to only enforce the law “in extraordinary circumstances”. That would include significant property damage or bodily harm. A Saturday executive order repealed two Biden administration actions that Trump says violated the Hyde Amendment and politicized FACE Act enforcement.

For his second administration, Trump has vowed to leave the issue of abortion to the states. But there will be some policies related to abortion handled by federal agencies and the people Trump has appointed to lead them.

TRUMP: Like Robert F Kennedy Jr he came in and he's going to help make America healthy again [Applause - crowd chants “Bobby”]

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. began his campaign for president as a pro-abortion Democrat in 2023. He’s now Trump’s choice to lead the Department of Health and Human Services…and will be on Capitol Hill today to testify before the Senate Finance Committee.

While most Democrats oppose Kennedy for his anti-vaccine positions, some Republicans are concerned about where he stands on the sanctity of life. After openly supporting abortion up until birth, Kennedy posted a video last June saying he supports protecting unborn babies after a certain number of weeks, but would oppose total bans.

KENNEDY: More recently I've learned that my assumptions were wrong. Sometimes women abort healthy viable late term fetuses. These cases of purely elective late term abortions are very upsetting. Once the baby is viable outside the womb it should have rights and it deserves society's protection.

But some pro-lifers say Kennedy’s pivot does not qualify him to helm the nation’s health agencies.

CHAPMAN: I think pro-life senators have an obligation to put this stuff on the record and to ask very tough questions…

Tim Chapman is president of Advancing American Freedom…a think tank co-founded by former Vice President Mike Pence. The group is lobbying senators to vote against Kennedy’s nomination. Chapman says he does not trust Kennedy’s recent turn toward conservatism to extend to pro-life policy.

CHAPMAN: I think what you're seeing from Kennedy is a real struggle to get his own views where he's comfortable with them on this issue. Converts are welcome, but we don't need to put somebody who's in the process of trying to figure this out at the top agency dealing with the issue of life.

In recent weeks, Kennedy has reportedly told senators in private meetings that his deputies at HHS will be pro-life. Meanwhile, pro-life organizations like Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America and Life Action have been largely quiet on Kenndy’s credentials. Chapman says that pro-lifers have called him to thank Advancing American Freedom for raising the issue. But they’re hesitant to go up against a Trump nominee.

CHAPMAN: One of the ways that the number of abortions would rise in this administration is if the abortion pill is unfettered and unregulated and is allowed to be used as a backdoor way to infiltrate conservative states who want to be pro-life. People should ask Kennedy that question. What are you going to do to ensure that there are tight regulations around the abortion pill?

Other pro-life advocates say Kennedy is merely the figurehead of Trump’s agenda, and they trust Trump to set pro-life policies. I spoke with Steve Deace, who hosts a conservative talk show on The Blaze:

DEACE: We're getting the best of both worlds. We're getting the most pro-life president of all time resetting us back to where things were before Biden took over. And we're getting RFK Jr. as a proven crusader in an arena that has for too long been overlooked. So I'm ecstatic.

Deace supports many of Kennedy’s positions, including vaccine skepticism. He admits that the former Democrat’s stance on abortion is concerning, but says the bigger picture is reassuring.

DEACE: On the vaccine side, the same people putting the fetal tissue cells in their vaccines are the same vaccine manufacturers that RFK Jr. doesn't trust. Our reasons may not necessarily be the same, but our interests are aligned.

After Kennedy testifies before the Senate Finance Committee today, he will report to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions tomorrow. Pro-life senators Josh Hawley of Missouri and Tommy Tuberville of Alabama have publicly endorsed him, but other lawmakers are waiting for more pro-life commitments during the hearings.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Carolina Lumetta in Washington.

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