When President Joe Biden took office, he nominated Xavier Becerra, a former California congressman and attorney general, to run the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). As California’s attorney general, Becerra was at the forefront of legal efforts on health care. In his current position as HHS secretary, Becerra is a strong proponent of “gender-affirming care.”
Watch the above video as Straight Arrow News contributor Timothy Carney argues that President Biden’s appointment of Xavier Becerra was a move that betrayed his fellow Catholics in favor of pursuing a liberal “culture war” health agenda.
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The following is an excerpt of the above video:
Why would the president do that? Because Biden sees HHS not primarily as a health care agency but as a culture-war agency, and Becerra is a ruthless culture warrior.
In California, Becerra abused his power and brought felony charges against a pro-life activist for exposing Planned Parenthood’s trade in the internal organs of aborted babies. He also tried to force pro-life crisis pregnancy centers to advertise abortion.
In Congress, Becerra sponsored a bill that would have forced Catholic employers to provide birth control to employees. Becerra also joined an effort to discriminate against Catholic hospitals that wouldn’t perform or recommend abortions. Becerra’s latest crusade against conscience involves sex changes — what the Biden administration calls “gender-affirming care.”
In May, HHS issued its final rules mandating that hospitals give sex-change hormones and remove or alter the genitals and breasts of patients who ask for it.
Catholic hospitals, of course, consider such operations akin to mutilation. A woman does not become a man by believing she is a man. And so removing her natural organs because of some notion of gender identity is not morally acceptable.