The self-described mission of the Department of Health and Human Services is rather benign: to “enhance the health and well-being of all Americans” via “sustained advances in the sciences underlying medicine, public health, and social services.”
Is that really true?
On Monday, the Supreme Court consolidated three cases regarding a Title X funding dispute: American Medical Association v. Cochran, Oregon v. Cochran, and Cochran v. Mayor and City Council of Baltimore. The nation’s top court will decide whether HHS acted lawfully when the Trump administration barred organizations that provide abortions from receiving Title X family planning funds.
In February 2019, the department announced a finalized federal rule forbidding “the use of Title X funds to perform, promote, refer for, or support abortion as a method of family planning.” HHS stated that “Pursuant to congressional mandate, family participation is to be encouraged, particularly in services involving adolescents. And, from the start, Congress was clear that Title X funds cannot be used to support abortion.”
The assessment was correct. Unfortunately, whatever the Supreme Court decides, the Biden administration has chosen Xavier Becerra to lead the department.
For those who are unaware, Becerra made his name engaging in a multiyear rampage against the Little Sisters of the Poor, a nonprofit religious group dedicated to serving the needy. Becerra did so by relentlessly seeking to enforce President Barack Obama’s contraceptive mandate as also applying to nuns despite the fact that contraception violates their conscience! For years, Becerra has bullied the Little Sisters in court. A culture war zealot, Becerra’s fanatical efforts to subjugate the Little Sisters should disbar him from leading HHS.
Empowered with executive authority, Becerra would undoubtedly continue similar campaigns against those who he believes retain impure beliefs. Even if the Supreme Court rules that the Trump administration’s actions were lawful, Becerra’s new position would allow him to start new fights against the far-Left’s enemies. All under the excuse of protecting healthcare. Figuratively and literally, it is sick.
His nomination should be rejected outright by the Senate.
