By Dave Andrusko
When it is appropriate—and, unfortunately when it is a Democrat, it too often is—we will label someone a radical pro-abortionist. Take Joe Biden’s vice presidential running mate, Senator Kamala Harris, as one example.
We’ve delved in great detail into her over-the-top-even-for-a-Democrat embrace of abortion on demand, paid for out of your and my pocket, and the promise found in her “Reproductive Rights Act” to make life miserable for any state which dares to pass legislation she opposes. She is a piece of work.
Add to that list California Attorney General and former congressman Xavier Becerra, who, pro-abortion Joe Biden says, would be his Secretary of Health and Human Services.
On Wednesday National Review Online’s Isaac Schorr wrote a piece under the headline, “Of Course There’s Such a Thing as an ‘Abortion Enthusiast.’”
The reason for this follow up column was because some had hammered Schorr for writing in a prior column (under the headline “Biden Taps Abortion Enthusiast to Run HHS”) that Biden had chosen “no mere supporter of a ‘women’s right to choose’” but “an abortion enthusiast, a fanatic, a devotee.”
Schorr goes on to elegantly explain why “an abortion enthusiast,” “a fanatic,” and “a devotee” were no exaggerations. But the larger point was that this all-consuming desire to legalize abortion until the end of pregnancy and then be (at best) agnostic about whether to allow abortion survivors to perish unattended, is hardly a position unique to Becerra.
It is the posture of virtually the entire Senate Democrat caucus—indeed, of Democrats at virtually all levels—and of a disturbing number of “entertainers,” such as Michelle Wolf and Lena Dunham.
What raises, or, in this case sinks, Becerra to new levels is his crusade against Pregnancy Help Centers in his role as California Attorney General. (He succeeded–what a coincidence– Kamala Harris.)
Schorr writes
Even the First Amendment is less important to Becerra and other California Democrats than abortion rights. When the state legislature passed a law requiring pro-life pregnancy centers to distribute government-produced pro-choice literature to women who showed up at their doorsteps, Becerra faithfully enforced it in clear contravention of the Constitution he was sworn to support and defend. Predictably, this led to his being rebuked at the Supreme Court.
But there is even more!
For his part, Becerra is not just of the opinion that abortion should be legal at any stage of development, for any reason. He believes that the opposite view is so outrageous that state power should be used to persecute those who hold it. In 2016, he voted against a bill meant to protect the conscience rights of health-care providers by barring federal, state, and local governments from punishing those who refused to “perform, refer for, pay for, or otherwise participate in abortion.” Later, as California attorney general, he overcharged pro-life activists who exposed Planned Parenthood’s fetal-tissue business, in an abuse of power that offended even left-wing outlets such as the Los Angeles Times and Mother Jones.
John McCormack, also writing at National Review Online, said of the selection of Becerra, “Biden Picks a Culture Warrior to Run HHS in the Middle of a Pandemic.”
McCormack immediately asked
What are Becerra’s qualifications to run the most important federal agency at the peak of the worst pandemic in a century?
Becerra, a former congressman, has no experience working at HHS and no medical background. He has never been chief executive of a state, or even of a large, complex organization.
His “qualifications” are found elsewhere. He is an abortion fanatic who will take dead aim (literally and figuratively) on all the progress made under the Trump Administration’s Health and Human Service.
You can’t say we weren’t warned.