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In an op-ed in the New York Daily News, Senior Associate Dean Terry McGovern and Sexual and Reproductive Justice Hub Press Relations Manager Katherine Hartley weigh in on the reproductive health implications of President Donald Trump’s appointment of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
President Trump’s war on reproductive health now has an enforcer. With Robert F. Kennedy Jr. now leading the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), the nation’s top health agency tasked with protecting public health is in the hands of a man who has spent years undermining it.
Kennedy is a danger to women and girls. The HHS secretary has enormous power over reproductive health. Among others, the agency includes the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and oversees the administration of Medicaid, the largest single payer of maternity care in the nation. As the head of HHS, he can weaponize the FDA against medication abortion, gut funding for Title X — the only federal program entirely dedicated to family planning health services — and push Trump’s anti-science agenda onto millions of Americans.
Once a self-proclaimed pro-choice advocate, Kennedy has now aligned himself with Trump’s extremist views, agreeing that “every abortion is a tragedy” and voicing support for a national abortion ban. He signaled during his confirmation hearings that he would be open to calling for an investigation into mifepristone, a medication used inmore than 60% of U.S. abortions. Mifepristone has been approved by the FDA for nearly 25 years, with a safety recordstronger than Viagra and Tylenol and the risk of death is almost nonexistent. His statements are not about science — they are about control.
Trump and his allies have signaled a plan to take this further, by weaponizing the 19th-century Comstock Act. They see the archaic, anti-obscenity law as a chance to ban the mailing of abortion pills — even in states where abortion remains legal. Kennedy’s willingness to question mifepristone’s safety suggests that he will be a key player in this effort, using his power over the FDA to dismantle medication abortion access nationwide.
We know what happens when politicians interfere with reproductive health care. We’ve seen it in Texas, where a young mother,Josseli Barnica, died last year after doctors delayed miscarriage treatment in fear of the state’s strict abortion laws. They sent her home, despite her excruciating pain and bleeding, letting her deteriorate until it was too late. If doctors had immediately offered procedural or medication abortion care — the widely used standard for miscarriage management — she might still be alive today.
Barnica’s death was not an accident. It is the inevitable result of an extremist, anti-abortion agenda that ties doctors’ hands and prioritizes politics over women’s lives. Recent data from Texas confirm that maternal sepsis and infant mortality rates increased by 20% and nearly 13%, respectively, following the state’s strict six-week abortion ban. With Kennedy leading HHS, this crisis will only worsen nationally.
How many more women must suffer before we take the threat seriously? Kennedy has been confirmed, but the fight for reproductive rights is far from over. If the federal government won’t protect women, state leaders must step up.
And abortion isn’t the only target. Kennedy has sown doubt about the safe and effective HPV vaccine and taken aim at gender-affirming care, despite the overwhelming medical consensus that it saves lives. His rhetoric signals a dangerous willingness to attack vulnerable populations under the guise of “health policy.”
States and institutions are already putting patient care at risk. Missouri lawmakers are further restricting gender-affirming care — even for adults. North Dakota legislators have introduced a fetal personhood bill to outlaw abortion entirely. In New York City, hospitals are rolling back transgender health care. Meanwhile, Gov. Hochul has expanded privacy protections for providers mailing abortion pills to patients in restrictive states, after a Louisiana grand jury indicted a New York doctor for prescribing them to a resident.
Kennedy’s confirmation was a green light for Trump’s assault on reproductive rights and a devastating blow to public health. His supporters are eager to see RFK Jr. “go wild” on health policy. State lawmakers must meet that energy with action — by codifying abortion rights, strengthening privacy protections for providers and patients, and blocking Kennedy’s agenda wherever possible.
This is about whether we allow our health policies to be dictated by ideology instead of science, whether we allow politicians to strip away basic freedoms, and whether we accept an administration that dehumanizes women, restricts bodily autonomy, and enables a culture where misogyny and sexual violence go unchecked.
McGovern is the senior associate dean for academic and student affairs at the CUNY Graduate School of Public Health and Health Policy, spearheading its Sexual & Reproductive Justice Hub. Hartley is an MPH student and advocate, focused on sexual and reproductive health and justice.
