More than 40 national pro-life leaders are calling upon the U.S. Senate to vote “no” on Joe Biden’s choice of California Attorney General Xavier Becerra (D) as Health and Human Services (HHS) secretary.
Students for Life Action drafted the letter signed by pro-life leaders, including those heading Family Research Council, the Susan B. Anthony List, March for Life, National Right to Life, and the Center for Medical Progress, that was sent to Senate leadership Monday.
The letter reads:
Mr. Becerra has consistently used the power of his office to attack people who think differently than him and to advance the interests of the abortion lobby when he had the authority to do so. We the undersigned have grave concerns about how he would use the power of the nation’s healthcare systems to advance his preference for abortion and express his disregard for people of faith by forcing support, payment, and compliance with policies that he prefers.
Students for Life Action President Kristan Hawkins said Becerra’s radical pro-abortion political views and lack of actual experience in the field of health care disqualify him from being a viable candidate:
Pro-family and pro-life leaders have come together to send the clear message that weaponizing America’s healthcare systems against pro-lifers and people of faith must never be allowed or tolerated. There is a reason that Planned Parenthood and their abortion allies believe they have been ‘wildly successful’ with a possible Becerra pick. They don’t care that he has no healthcare experience, because as a lawyer, he has used the law against everyone from nuns to pregnancy care centers to the FDA to advance a radical abortion agenda.
The letter especially notes that since Becerra assumed his role as California attorney general, he has pursued “rabid prosecution of pro-life journalists and whistleblowers, David Daleiden and Sandra Merritt, whose undercover reporting exposed Planned Parenthood’s alleged involvement in harvesting the organs of the preborn and trafficking them for research.”
When former California Attorney General Kamala Harris (D) was elected to the U.S. Senate, Becerra succeeded her in prosecuting the video journalists.
“In 2017, Mr. Becerra filed 15 felony charges against Daleiden and Merritt, making them the first individual in California’s history to be criminally-prosecuted over the state’s video recording law,” the letter reads.
Earlier this month, Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) expressed concern about Becerra’s radical pro-abortion views while appearing as a guest on Fox News Channel’s The Story.
“I’m concerned about the reports that say that he’s been a champion for late-term abortion and at the time of birth abortion, and that’s outside the norm,” Paul said, as Breitbart News reported.
“Even pro-choice people a lot of times will say they believe in some restrictions, but to believe in sort of complete, unlimited abortion until the time of birth or after, I think is something that’s a very radical position,” the senator continued, “and I would hate to have him in charge of trying to dispense government monies towards that kind of policy.”
