Metro Voice News Celebrating Faith, Family & Community
A controversial nomination has been advanced by the U.S. Senate. Debate was ended on Wednesday moving a vote forward on pro-abortion Xavier Becerra as Health and Human Service Secretary.
The Susan B. Anthony List, an influential pro-life group, has called for Republican senators to “stand firm and stop this unacceptable nomination from going forward.”
The group has been joined by U.S. Senator Tom Cotton of (R-Ark.) who says Becerra’s career has been all about supporting abortion. “Xavier Becerra spent his career attacking pro-life Americans and tried to force crisis pregnancy centers to advertise abortions,” Cotton tweeted. “I’ll be voting no, and Becerra should be rejected by the Senate.”
Cotton’s comments were in contrast to that of Utah Senator Mitt Romney. “I do believe a president is entitled to the team he wants to put together, unless they’re completely off the mark,” said Romney.
Self-described pro-life U.S. Sens. Bob Casey Jr., of Pennsylvania, and Joe Manchin, of West Virginia, voted with their party to advance Becerra’s confirmation. U.S. Sen. Susan Collins, of Maine, a pro-abortion Republican, split from her party and also voted yes giving Democrats a 50-49 vote to invoke cloture and move on to a final vote which is expected to pass this week.
Becerra, the attorney general of California, is a career politician with no medical background who regularly espoused what many consider radical pro-abortion views and policy including prosecuting the undercover journalists, supporting partial-birth abortions and attempting to force nuns who serve the poor and elderly to fund abortions.
Pro-life Democrats across the nation have joined Republicans in publicly opposing Becerra’s confirmation.
“Mr. Becerra’s confirmation would be divisive and a step in the wrong direction,” more than 60 pro-life leaders told U.S. Senators in February. He “has proven himself to be an enemy of the health of women and the unborn. He cannot be entrusted with our national health programs and policies and is not qualified to serve as Secretary of Health and Human Services.”
They said Becerra has abused his powerful position “to target pro-life health centers and journalists,” and he cannot be trusted.
“Mr. Becerra is an enemy to every pro-life policy and law and has demonstrated complete disregard for the religious and moral convictions of those opposed to the brutal act of abortion,” they wrote. “His radical record in public office as California’s Attorney General and member of Congress leads our organizations to ask you to reject Mr. Becerra’s nomination.”
“We need someone to lead HHS who values the fullness of life and won’t actively work to advocate to expand the opportunity to end it through abortion,” said Kristen Day, executive director of Democrats For Life of America, in a statement. “The nomination of a state AG with little medical experience only serves the purpose of appeasing the abortion cultural warriors in the Democratic Party. This runs counter to the Biden Administration’s stated goal of healing divisions in the United States.”
Like President Joe Biden, Becerra says he’s Catholic but opposes the protection of unborn life, which is a central tenant of the Catholic faith. As head of HHS, Becerra would have even more power to advance a radical anti-life agenda, including expanding late-term abortions on babies capable of feeling pain and forcing taxpayers to pay for their deaths.
Becerra also sued the federal government in 2017 because President Donald Trump has instituted a pro-life rule to protect Christian charities from having to pay for forms of contraception that may cause abortions through Obamacare. The Little Sisters of the Poor, a charity of nuns who serve the poor and elderly, is involved in defending the rule against Becerra.
–Metro Voice and LifeSiteNews
