Former Vice President Mike Pence, a longtime leader of the anti-abortion movement, has taken up a lonely crusade to defeat the nomination of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. for health secretary. His organization, Advancing American Freedom, is running ads against Mr. Kennedy. Mr. Pence has accused Mr. Kennedy of promoting “abortion on demand.”
His fellow abortion opponents are not listening.
Thousands of anti-abortion activists descended on Washington on Friday to mark the 52nd anniversary of Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court case that established a constitutional right to abortion. President Trump addressed the crowd at the March for Life by video. Vice President JD Vance spoke in person. Mr. Kennedy, whose flip-flips on abortion have made many conservatives deeply uneasy, was not on the agenda — and drew no mention.
But in a sign of how the right wing of the Republican Party is kowtowing to Mr. Trump — and, perhaps, of the deepening break between Mr. Pence and the president — leaders of the anti-abortion movement are lining up behind Mr. Kennedy, or at least not openly opposing him.
Tim Chapman, who as president of Advancing American Freedom is leading Mr. Pence’s campaign, said others in the conservative movement had told him privately that they agreed with the former vice president, but did not want to say so publicly. He said conservative leaders who failed to oppose Mr. Kennedy were abdicating their traditional role of pressuring party leaders on the issues the movement cared about.
“His confirmation lays bare the real question right now about what the movement exists to do,” Mr. Chapman said, adding, “We have the freedom to plant the flag, and we know there are a lot of people who agree with us on this issue, and we hope that they’ll join us.”
A spokeswoman for Mr. Kennedy did not respond to a request for comment.
Anti-abortion groups and Christian conservatives have rallied around Mr. Trump since his 2016 run for office, when he promised to appoint Supreme Court justices who would overturn Roe. He succeeded; the decision was overturned in 2022.