President Biden’s nominee to lead the Department of Health and Human Services, Xavier Becerra, dodged a question from Sen. Mitt Romney about his prior stance on supporting partial-birth abortions during Tuesday’s confirmation hearing before the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee.
.@SenatorRomney: "You voted against a ban on partial birth abortion. Why?"
Becerra: "I understand that people have different deeply held beliefs on this issue….We may not always agree on where to go, but I think we can find some common ground." pic.twitter.com/kGgGv33xCo
— Mary Margaret Olohan (@MaryMargOlohan) February 23, 2021
“You voted against a ban on partial-birth abortion. Why?” Romney, a GOP senator from Utah, asked Becerra.
Instead of providing the rationale for his radical pro-choice stance that allows for killing babies while they are already partly outside the birth canal, Becerra dodged the question.
“I understand that people have different deeply held beliefs on this issue. … We may not always agree on where to go, but I think we can find some common ground,” the California attorney general said.
Becerra voted against the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act in 2003, which would nonetheless pass that same year and be upheld in the 2007 Supreme Court case Gonzales v. Carhart. Republicans have continued to press the nominee on his abortion positions through the years, as he remains near to heading up the HHS.
“In picking Xavier Becerra, @JoeBiden shows that not only will he force taxpayers to fund the slaughter of preborn children at the will of their parents (repeal of #Hyde), but he supports the prosecution of Americans who dare to expose the unprecedented evils of Planned Parenthood,” tweeted Lila Rose, founder and president of Live Action, in December.
In picking Xavier Becerra, @JoeBiden shows that not only will he force taxpayers to fund the slaughter of preborn children at the will of their parents (repeal of #Hyde), but he supports the prosecution of Americans who dare to expose the unprecedented evils of Planned Parenthood
— Lila Rose (@LilaGraceRose) December 7, 2020
Sixty pro-life leaders sent a joint letter urging the Senate HELP and Finance Committee to reject the nomination of Becerra this week, after Judicial Crisis Network, Heritage Action for America, and Americans for Public Trust announced a more than $2 million advertising campaign on Thursday targeting Becerra and associate attorney general nominee Vanita Gupta.
