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California Attorney General Xavier Becerra

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WASHINGTON, D.C., February 24, 2021 (LifeSiteNews) – Senate confirmation hearings continued Wednesday for President Joe Biden’s nominee to lead the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), California Attorney General Xavier Becerra.

As attorney general of the Golden State, Becerra was responsible for enforcing draconian restrictions on religious assembly in the name of containing COVID-19, and joined other Democrat officials across the country in using the pandemic as a justification to demand abortion pills be approved for unsupervised home use.

Becerra has also shown a marked hostility to Americans who follow Judeo-Christian teaching on matters such as abortion and homosexuality, from forcing churches to subsidize elective abortions in health insurance, to forcing pro-life pregnancy centers to advertise abortion resources, to refusing to fund state employees’ travel to South Carolina in protest of its law protecting adoption agencies that insist on giving children both a mother and a father.

Those positions were the focus of questioning by several Republican lawmakers Tuesday, and continued Wednesday.

Becerra refused to tell Sen. Steve Daines of Montana if there were any abortion restrictions he would support, claiming only that he “will make sure I am respecting the law on those issues.” He also refused to say whether babies aborted in the second trimester should receive pain medication beforehand, calling it a “very technical question.”

Becerra also denied having ever “sued any nuns,” insisting his lawsuits in California have always been directed at federal agencies rather than “any affiliation of nuns.”

The claim is a technical distinction at best, as the express purpose of those lawsuits was to legally coerce the the Little Sisters of the Poor (and other religious entities) into subsidizing abortifacient drugs against their will.

Nevertheless, Becerra’s views align closely with those of Biden himself, who has been falsely described as a “devout” Catholic and “moderate” Democrat despite supporting effectively-unlimited abortion at taxpayer expense and comprehensive recognition and accommodation of homosexuality and gender fluidity at the expense of religious or conscience rights.

“Mr. Becerra’s confirmation would be divisive and a step in the wrong direction. We understand that the president needs to assemble a cabinet; however, Mr. Becerra has proven himself to be an enemy of the health of women and the unborn,” read a letter backed by more than 60 pro-life groups to the top Democrats and Republicans on the Senate Finance and Health Committees. “He cannot be entrusted with our national health programs and policies and is not qualified to serve as Secretary of Health and Human Services.”