WASHINGTON (AP) – Election of President Joe Biden as Secretary of Health is taking the heat of Republicans for their actions in favor of abortion rights. They want to define it and the new administration as out of the mainstream.
The nomination of Xavier Becerra faces a key vote Wednesday in the Senate finance committee. It is also a test for national anti-abortion groups, which are trying to deny a president who favors abortion rights his choice to head the Department of Health and Human Services.
Becerra is paying a price to defend himself, as California’s attorney general, some of the nation’s most liberal laws and policies on abortion rights.
“It’s going to show that California’s abortion policies are progressive enough for anti-abortion lawmakers to want to disqualify them from holding a cabinet position,” said Mary Ziegler, a law professor at Florida State University who specializes in abortion. legal history of reproduction.
At the national level, the issue of abortion is emerging. Lawmakers from 19 state legislatures have introduced nearly 50 bills this year to ban most or all abortions, according to the Guttmacher Institute. In South Carolina, Republican Gov. Henry McMaster signed a measure banning most abortions, though it was suspended almost immediately by a federal judge.
Opponents of abortion expect litigation over a state law to reach the Supreme Court, which is now clearly leaning to the right. It could serve as a vehicle to overturn the Roe v. Wade decision, which legalized abortion. Although, despite the increase in state activity, the underlying political reality is complicated.
During the 2020 election, approximately 6 out of 10 voters said abortion should be legal in most or all cases, according to VoteCast, an in-depth poll on the U.S. electorate conducted by NORC at the University of Chicago for The Associated Press. About the same percentage of Republicans said abortion should be legal, according to the poll.
Becerra, 63, was a trusted Democratic vote for abortion rights for more than 20 years representing a Los Angeles area district in the United States House. But he was not a leading voice. His problems were immigration, access to health care, and education.
Perceptions changed after Becerra was named California attorney general in 2017. He sued the Trump administration over its restrictions on abortion, though his office says only four of the 124 lawsuits Becerra filed against the previous administration dealt with abortion, birth control or rights of conscience – key issues for religious conservatives. Becerra went to the U.S. Supreme Court to defend a California law that required pregnancy centers in crisis to provide information about abortion and its loss.
His legal defense was based on opponents of abortion. “What I see is that it’s involved in too many abortion cases,” said Kristen Day, executive director of Democrats for Life of America. “It was simply part of its foundation. Yes, the laws were bad in California, but he has an abortion agenda. ”
Senator John Thune, RS.D., echoed those views. “It seems that, as Attorney General, you spent excessive time and effort in suing pro-life organizations,” he said, questioning Becerra recently. “If confirmed, how do you assure us? Because I think the majority of the American population would not want their Secretary of Health and Human Services to look at or focus on expanding abortion when we manage to address all of these public health issues. “
“I understand that Americans have profoundly different beliefs on this particular issue,” Becerra replied, adding that “my job is to defend the rights of my state.” He also noted that his wife, Dr. Carolina Reyes, is a recognized obstetrician for caring for women with high-risk pregnancies.
Finance Committee Chairman Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore, accused some Republican senators of ignoring the coronavirus pandemic “for attacking deceptive or demonstrable false attacks on Attorney General Becerra’s record defending access to the reproductive health care “.
There doesn’t seem to be much room for dialogue. “It’s very difficult to see where you’ll find or be willing to find any common ground with life advocates,” Carol Tobias, chair of the National Committee on the Right to Life, said about Becerra.
Senator Steve Daines, R-Mont., Told Becerra that “I have serious concerns about the radical views you have taken in the past on the issue of abortion.” And Sen. Ben Sasse, R-Neb, accused Becerra of “addressing religious freedom” when he sued the Trump administration for its rules, giving employers with religious or moral objections more leeway to opt for not covering birth control.
The extent to which the Biden administration will expand access to abortion is questionable. It appears that Democrats in Congress do not have the votes to overturn the Hyde Amendment, the term for a series of federal laws that prohibit taxpayer funding for abortion, except in cases of rape or incest or to save the woman’s life. Biden, who supported Hyde’s restrictions throughout his career in Congress, resigned from his position as a presidential candidate. Becerra has told senators they will follow the law.
Opponents of abortion rights say they do not trust Becerra. “He’s credited himself as an abortionist absolutist: he’s who he is,” said Marjorie Dannenfelser, list president Susan B. Anthony, who supports women seeking office opposed to abortion.
But Becerra has received support from a prominent Catholic, Sister Carol Keehan, the retired head of the Catholic Health Association of the United States. He disagrees with his support for abortion rights, but finds common ground elsewhere.
“He has the heart to make sure people have the ability to access that country’s health care,” Keehan said. “I think the way to reduce abortion is by giving people decent health care.”
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Beaumont reported from Des Moines, Iowa.