Xavier Becerra is Such an Abortion Extremist He Tried to Force Catholic Nuns to Fund Abortions

Opinion   |   Father Frank Pavone   |   Dec 15, 2020   |   3:09PM   |   Washington, DC

Many in the anti-abortion community are raising concerns about Xavier Becerra being named to a Joe Biden cabinet post, should the Democratic candidate ultimately become the 46th president of the United States.

So what’s all the fuss about?

Becerra, now the attorney general for California, is Biden’s pick for secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).

That would be bad news for the unborn and their mothers, as there are few more committed abortion ideologues in the nation.

Before being elected attorney general three years ago, Becerra had represented a Los Angeles district in the U.S. House of Representatives since 2003.

As a congressman, he voted against the federal ban on partial-birth abortion procedures (performed even in the third trimester) and supported taxpayer funding of abortion.

As attorney general, Becerra was behind the effort to force pregnancy help centers, which exist to give women alternatives to abortion, to tell those same women how they could obtain an abortion.

The U.S. Supreme Court recognized the First Amendment violation in Becerra’s attempt and ruled against the attorney general’s overreach in the case known as NIFLA vs. Becerra (2018), which Priests for Life joined in an amicus (friend-of-the-court) brief.

Forcing pregnancy centers to advertise for abortion is like requiring Alcoholics Anonymous meetings to advertise for the liquor store down the street.

Becerra was behind this effort to make sure choice was eliminated and abortion the only option.

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Becerra also sued the Little Sisters of the Poor over the Catholic order’s refusal to provide abortion-causing drugs and devices to employees.

This was after the Little Sisters of the Poor and several other groups, including Priests for Life, won protections from the federal government for faith-based groups like ours.

Perhaps most egregiously, the attorney general continued the prosecution of the undercover journalists who exposed Planned Parenthood’s fetal harvesting business.

It was then-Attorney General Kamala Harris who, instead of looking further into the macabre and illegal sale of the organs of aborted babies uncovered in 2015 by the Center for Medical Progress, began investigating the center’s David Daleiden and Sandra Merritt.

Harris’s successor, Becerra, brought felony charges against the two activists, whom I know well, in 2017.

That case continues.

Becerra has demonstrated that he has no special regard for the First Amendment, which brings up another concern. Under President Trump, the Conscience and Religious Freedom Division (CRFD) was created as part of the Office of Civil Rights within HHS to ensure the conscience rights of all citizens. For instance, it enforces laws that protect healthcare providers who refuse for religious or moral grounds to take part in abortion.

When this division was opened, hundreds of citizens contacted it for help, whereas throughout the previous eight years there were only a handful of complaints.

It’s doubtful that office would be preserved with Becerra as department head.

What would then happen to doctors, nurses, midwives, physician’s assistants and other workers who will not participate in the destruction of the unborn?

Becerra has no experience in healthcare, making him a curious choice to lead HHS in the midst of a raging pandemic. Five of the nation’s medical groups wrote a letter to Biden asking him to place physicians in top medical posts.

“… we believe that your Administration and the country would be well- served by the appointment of qualified physicians to serve in key positions critical to advancing the health of our nation. Therefore, our organizations, which represent more than 400,000 frontline physicians practicing in the United States, write to request that you identify and appoint physicians to health care leadership positions within your Administration.”

So what’s behind Becerra’s selection?

Abortion.

Columnist Russ Douthat of The New York Times described Becerra as “an abortion-rights maximalist” who would, as the head of HHS, be ready, willing and able to turn the nation’s largest abortion seller, Planned Parenthood, into a federal agency.

Planned Parenthood has endorsed and funded his political career.

As I predicted in June, Planned Parenthood could follow the path of the Department of Veterans Affairs, which became a Cabinet-level agency in 1930.

Once ensconced, Planned Parenthood wouldn’t have to worry about anti-abortion lawmakers’ ability to pull or decrease its funding and also would have unfettered access to public schools.

Would taxpayers would be forced to fund abortion through all nine months of pregnancy, and for any reason? Would Planned Parenthood — with a new, family friendly name — take over school health departments and sex education programs would aim to ensure that every student becomes sexually active as early as possible?

I am among the tens of millions of citizens who are convinced that President Trump is the rightful winner of the election. Yet that is not the only reason that Joe Biden should not become president.

Personnel is policy, and both the personnel and policies we would see in a Biden administration are nothing to celebrate.