Anti-abortion advocates decried President-elect Biden’s selection of California Attorney General Xavier Becerra to head the Department of Health and Human Services, citing his record of opposing abortion restrictions.
“When you look at somebody like Xavier Becerra and his record in California, you see that this man is not a moderate on the issue of abortion, he is a pro-abortion extremist,” said Mallory Quigley, vice president of communications at anti-abortion advocacy group the Susan B. Anthony List.
Becerra has served as California’s attorney general since 2017. From 2003 to 2017, he was a member of the U.S. House of Representatives, where he represented a Los Angeles district.
In 2018, the Supreme Court ruled against a California law defended by Becerra mandating that anti-abortion crisis pregnancy centers tell patients that abortions are covered by plans in the state. The court sided with the crisis pregnancy centers, which argued that the law interfered with their mission to encourage women not to have abortions, thus violating their First Amendment rights.
Becerra also brought 15 felony charges against anti-abortion activists David Daleiden and Sandra Merritt of the Center for Medical Progress in 2017 for taping undercover videos of Planned Parenthood.
Becerra also defended the state mandate that health plans provide coverage for abortions in a challenge from Trump administration officials, who argued the California law requiring health plans in the state to cover abortion services discriminated against health insurance plans that don’t cover abortions.
“His abortion radicalism spans back to his time in Congress, when he voted in support of partial-birth abortion,” Quigley said, referring to a 2003 bill to ban the procedure that is most commonly used in the second and third trimesters except in cases in which a women’s life is in danger.
Becerra was an outspoken advocate for abortion rights during his 24-year career in the House of Representatives, where he also served as chairman of the House Democratic Caucus. He consistently voted for legislation that shored up access to abortion as well as research using embryonic stem cells.
“His pro-abortion legacy in California should give everyone pause,” she added.
Other national anti-abortion organizations have come out in opposition to Becerra’s nomination. Jeanne Mancini, president of the March for Life, said Monday that Becerra “has a long and hostile record towards pro-life Americans.”
Ashley McGuire, a senior fellow with The Catholic Association, said Biden’s choice “is a gross insult to Catholics … Becerra is outright hostile to religious liberty and Biden’s choice of someone so openly anti-Catholic is an affront to the faith that he so frequently invoked as part of his campaign.”
Nearly 60% of Californians believe abortion should be legal in most if not all cases. Less than 40% say abortion should be illegal, according to the Pew Research Center. Grassroots groups representing the minority have also criticized the appointment.
“He’s really at the cutting edge, if you will, of the abortion industry and sanitizing its public image, and using the power of government to do so,” Brian Johnston, the western director of the National Right to Life Committee and chairman of the California ProLife Council, told the Washington Examiner.
The balance of power in the Senate lies with Georgia’s runoff elections next month. If Republican Sens. David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler keep their positions in Congress, Republicans would have the chance to block Becerra’s appointment.
