'Aborted Fetus Debris' Is NOT RFK Jr.'s New Metal Band
It's also not in the vaccines.
Once upon a time, one of the nicer things you could say about Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was that at least he supported abortion rights. Unfortunately, as you may recall, he has since backtracked on this, asserting that he and Trump are aligned on reproductive rights.
“I agree with President Trump that every abortion is a tragedy. I agree with him that we cannot be a moral nation if we have 1.2 million abortions a year. I agree with him that the states should control abortion,” Kennedy Jr. told Republican Sen. James Lankford at his confirmation hearing earlier this year.
Now, it appears, he’s so on board with this that he’s happily using anti-abortion propaganda to buttress the opposition some Mennonites have against the measles vaccine.
On Wednesday night, the NewsNation Home for Wayward Boys hosted a town hall event with Trump and others in his administration in excited anticipation of his second 100 days in office. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was also in attendance, and was asked about his measles response by host Chris Cuomo, who was fired from CNN after secretly assisting the defense of his brother Andrew Cuomo after he was accused of sexual harassment.
Cuomo inquired about the difficulties a noted anti-vaccine activist like Kennedy Jr. might have when it comes to getting people vaccinated, asking, “How do you deal with that issue and what responsibility do you have in terms of how people feel about getting vaccinated?”
Kennedy Jr. responded by talking about how much better the US is doing with our measles outbreak in comparison to other nations, and then about groups with religious objections. And that’s where it got weird.
“There are populations like the Mennonites in Texas who are most afflicted, and they have religious objections to the vaccination because the [measles, mumps, and rubella] MMR vaccine contains a lot of aborted fetus debris and DNA particles,” he told Cuomo. “So, they don’t want to take it. We ought to be able to take care of those populations when they get sick.”
Aborted fetus debris.
Aborted.
Fetus.
Debris.
This just shows you how very little Robert F. Kennedy Jr. actually understands about vaccines. There’s no “aborted fetal debris” in the MMR vaccine. There are no “DNA particles.”
The fetal fibroblast cells used to grow the viruses used to create most vaccines today did originate from two fetuses that were aborted in the 1960s, and have continued to grow in a laboratory ever since. However! The vaccines themselves don’t actually contain any “aborted fetal debris” or “DNA particles.”
“In order to grow viruses in the lab, cells need to be made into single cell suspensions, meaning they can no longer be grouped together in the form of tissues or organs. As such, vaccines do not contain ‘parts of fetuses,’” according to the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. Additionally, “[v]accines also do not contain fetal cells. Once the vaccine viruses are grown in the cells, the next step in the manufacturing process is to purify the vaccine viruses away from the cells and substances used to help cells grow. If you have ever picked blueberries, you can think of this part of the process as similar. While you are picking, you might get some of the blueberry plant — stems, leaves and even branches — in your berry bucket, but to use the berries, you remove all of those things, so your pie contains only the blueberries (and any other ingredients you choose to add).”
The Catholic Church, which we all know to be pretty big on the fetuses, has evaluated this process and determined that it is “morally acceptable” for Catholics to take vaccines that originated in these cells when there is no other option other than getting sick or getting other people sick. There is also, actually, no official Mennonite law barring vaccines either, and most other sects do not consider that to be an aspect of their religion. In fact, many of them are a little annoyed that this group is making them look like selfish jerks.
That aside, no one gets to have a “religious belief” that there are dead baby bits in the vaccines when there are not dead baby bits in the vaccines. That’s not a thing. One’s faith cannot simply will dead baby bits into existence.
But Kennedy Jr. knows exactly what he’s doing here. He doesn’t actually want people to vaccinate their kids, and so he is going around talking about “aborted fetus debris” in hopes that others who oppose abortion rights will make the same decision some Mennonites have. He’s hoping they’ll say “No, sorry. We love life far too much to not put other people’s lives and health at risk. No aborted fetal debris vaccine for us!”
And, unfortunately, it will probably work.
PREVIOUSLY ON WONKETTE!
Look, I’m menopausal, mad, and I read science, which means I have precisely zero patience left for this biohazardous nonsense spewing from RFK Jr.’s half-melted brainpan. Let’s get one thing straight: there is no “aborted fetus debris” in vaccines. That phrase is not medicine, it’s fan fiction for ghouls. It’s not science, it’s scare porn for people whose understanding of biology begins and ends with "The Handmaid’s Tale" and not as a warning, but as a Pinterest board.
RFK Jr. isn’t confused. He’s not misinformed. He is deliberately manipulating the language of religious trauma and reproductive shame to build a coalition of zealots who will burn down public health because they think Jesus wants them to get measles. He’s tossing bloody meat to an anti-abortion, anti-science base that thrives on moral panic like it’s a goddamn CrossFit smoothie.
The phrase “aborted fetus debris” isn’t just gross, it’s propaganda. Designed to provoke disgust, not discussion. Designed to link vaccines to murder, so that white Christian nationalists feel righteous not just refusing care, but sabotaging the collective immune system out of holy vengeance.
And Chris Cuomo? Sit down, pal. Your journalistic rigor is about as sharp as a pool noodle. RFK Jr. hijacked your softball question, spread a bioethical lie, and you just nodded like a golden retriever at a barbecue.
Let me put it this way: if a public figure went on TV and claimed communion wafers were made from the ground-up bones of martyrs, Catholics would riot in the streets. But RFK Jr. invents “aborted fetus debris” to demonize medicine, and no one tackles him out of his chair? Where are the fact-checks? Where is the outrage?
This is a coordinated attack on science, on reproductive rights, and on the very concept of public trust. And RFK Jr. is trafficking in theocratic lies to do it.
So here’s my message to the anti-vax crusaders weaponizing reproductive trauma:
You don’t get to invoke “dead baby bits” as a reason to dodge civic responsibility while voting for the exact men who deny abortion to actual living women.
And to the rest of us? It’s time to name this shit for what it is: biopolitical terrorism in a tinfoil hat.
"Bobby Jr. has also said chemicals in the water could be turning children gay.
That is insane, that is nonsense. Water does not turn a person gay.
Although I got to say, Jason Momoa in Aquaman came pretty darn close.” - Stephen Colbert