RFK Jr. Leaves Lifesaving Infant ‘Safe to Sleep’ Campaign

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News broke yesterday that the federal government, specifically the Department of Health and Human Services under Robert F. Kennedy Jr., will no longer be participating in a campaign called Safe to Sleep.

Safe to Sleep is a decades-old program dedicated to reducing Sudden Unexpected Infant Death (SUID) through education and community advocacy. Ironically, the program was founded by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver ​​National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, named for RFK Jr.’s aunt – a philanthropist and sister to RFK Sr. and President John F. Kennedy.

It’s unclear why the HHS is going after Safe to Sleep. Is this part of RFK Jr.’s tinfoil hat skepticism, or is this an accidental cut by the reckless DOGE team? Not sure which is worse.

Either way, it is critical that pediatricians, parents, and child advocates make some noise about this. Safe sleep saves lives. Since Safe to Sleep was started in the 1990s the rate of sleep-related infant deaths plummeted drastically.

Between 1992 and 2001, the sleep-related infant mortality in the United States was cut in half, from 120 deaths per 100,000 infants to 53 deaths per 100,000. Less than ten years after that, that mortality rate fell to 33 per 100,000, close to where it sits today.

If you want to learn more about Safe to Sleep, visit their website here and check out this brief summary from their infographics:

Safe to Sleep Infographic, safetosleep.nichd.nih.gov

Although I’ve just thrown out a lot of numbers and information, I want to be clear about the bigger message here:

RFK Jr. is ending a tried and true program that saves babies’ lives.

At this point between Medicaid cuts, antivax propaganda, gutting Head Start, and now this… I’d be hard pressed to come up with a good rebuttal to the idea that MAGA hates American kids.