President-elect Joe Biden is expected to nominate California Attorney General Xavier Becerra to serve as the head of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), a person familiar with the decision confirmed Sunday.
Becerra will be the second Latino named to a high-profile Cabinet position by Biden. He will be tasked with leading a sprawling agency that is responsible for managing the response to the coronavirus pandemic, which has already killed more than 280,000 people in the U.S.
The president-elect is expected to formally announce Becerra as the pick Monday or Tuesday.
Becerra, 62, previously served 12 terms in the House representing Los Angeles. He was elected California attorney general in 2016. Since then, he has been among the most aggressive state attorneys general in challenging the Trump administration in court, suing over immigration measures and health care and environmental rollbacks.
As head of HHS, he will become one of the most visible Cabinet officials in fighting the pandemic, which is worsening each day in the U.S. The country now regularly records record high infections and is seeing increasing hospitalizations, with experts warning further spikes may follow the Thanksgiving holiday.
HHS will also be responsible for overseeing the distribution of a coronavirus vaccine in the coming months….
The above comes from a Dec. 6 story in The Hill.
An extremist
Pro-life leaders have warned against Joe Biden’s “aggressively pro-abortion” pick to lead the Department of Health and Human Services. California Attorney General Xavier Becerra has a long track record in taking legal action against pro-life organizations.
Early Monday morning, President-elect Joe Biden announced he would tap Becerra as the next Health Secretary. If confirmed, Becerra would have a key role in crafting public health policy during a pandemic—but also would be making policy decisions on controversial social issues with far-reaching consequences.
“Far from ‘uniting’ the country, Biden has proven yet again he is an extremist on abortion,” said Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of the Susan B. Anthony List, of the pick. “Becerra is aggressively pro-abortion and a foe of free speech.”
Jeanne Mancini, president of the March for Life, tweeted on Monday that “With Joe Biden’s pick of AG Becerra for HHS Secretary, we are seeing him make good on his promise to become the most radically pro-abortion president in history.”
As attorney general of California, Becerra has repeatedly fought Catholics and pro-lifers in court, including a loss at the Supreme Court in 2018, after the state tried to force pro-life pregnancy centers to advertise abortion services.
Becerra had defended the state’s Reproductive FACT Act, a law passed in 2015 before his tenure as attorney general, which required pro-life pregnancy centers to advertise for abortions. Pro-life groups claimed the state actively worked with the National Abortion Rights Action League to craft the legislation.
Becerra represented the state in the court battles against the legislation, which reached the Supreme Court; the court in 2018 struck down the law as a violation of the First Amendment.
Becerra’s predecessor Kamala Harris—now Vice President-elect—prosecuted journalist David Daleiden for his undercover videos claiming that Planned Parenthood unlawfully profited from the trade in fetal tissue of aborted babies. Becerra continued that fight in court.
Becerra also defended a 2014 state mandate that employers cover abortions in health plans, despite religious communities such as the Missionary Guadalupanas of the Holy Spirit not being exempted from the mandate.
In January, the Office of Civil Rights at the Department of Health and Human Services ruled that the state had violated the law in forcing groups to cover abortions against their conscientious beliefs. The office threatened to withhold federal funds to the state.
Becerra refused to comply with the HHS OCR demand. Now, if confirmed, he will be in charge of the entire agency.
Earlier in the pandemic, Becerra led a coalition of state attorneys generals to push for the Food and Drug Administration to loosen its restrictions on the distribution of the abortion pill.
Biden’s selection of Becerra for HHS Secretary could provoke bitter fights with pro-life and Catholic groups in a number of areas, including the contraceptive mandate.
The Obama administration forced many religious non-profits—including the Little Sisters of the Poor—to provide coverage for contraceptives, sterilizations, and some abortion-causing drugs in their health plans.
While the administration offered an “accommodation” to objecting religious groups, by which the groups were purportedly allowed to opt-out of the mandate, the Little Sisters and others still said the procedure forced them to cooperate in morally-objectionable contraceptive coverage.
The Trump administration ultimately offered broad religious and moral exemptions to the mandate—which Becerra challenged and lost at the Supreme Court this summer in Little Sisters of the Poor Jeanne Jugan Residence v. California.
Biden has said he would restore the Obama administration’s “accommodation” for objecting groups—thus possibly reigniting a court battle with the Little Sisters of the Poor. If confirmed, Becerra as Health Secretary HHS would be at the center of this battle.
The agency could also once again marginalize the religious freedom concerns of pro-lifers in health care.
Pro-life groups initially appealed to the Obama administration’s health department following the 2014 California abortion coverage mandate. While the groups asked for the administration to enforce the Weldon Amendment against the state—which bars federal funding of health care groups that force the provision or coverage of abortions—the administration simply said that California had not violated the law.
There might also be fights over conscience protections in health care, under Sec. 1557 of the Affordable Care Act. The section prohibits discrimination in health care and the Obama administration interpreted it to mean that gender-transition surgeries could not be denied by health care workers if requested.
The administration’s “transgender mandate” was struck down by a district court in 2019, but Becerra’s confirmation to HHS could resurrect that court battle.
The Trump administration extended conscience protections for health care workers in federally-funded health care, but Becerra could roll back those protections as health secretary.
Other pro-life policies advanced by the HHS in the last four years included new Title X regulations, mandating that any clinic receiving Title X family planning grants not refer for abortions, nor could they be co-located with abortion clinics.
The administration also instituted a moratorium on new aborted fetal tissue research proposals conducted at NIH facilities, defended religious adoption agencies from mandates that they work with same-sex couples, required separate billing of abortion coverage in federally-subsidized health plans under the Affordable Care Act, and expanded restrictions of abortion funding in U.S. global health assistance. Becerra would be expected to oppose all of these policies as health secretary.
Becerra would need a majority of votes from the Senate for a confirmation. Control of the chamber is still undecided, with two special elections to be held in January in Georgia that will ultimately determine which party controls the chamber.
Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) said on Monday morning that he would vote against Becerra’s confirmation .
Dannenfelser said that the selection of Becerra “underscores the importance of winning in Georgia to prevent pro-abortion forces from taking control of the U.S. Senate.”
This last part of the above comes from a Dec. 7 story in Angelus News.
Becerra sued the Little Sisters of the Poor, fought against the team who exposed Planned Parenthood’s body parts trade, and tried to strip conscience protections away from doctors and nurses.
He was more than bad enough for California and now the nation will be subjected to his abortion and other extremisms.
Pray that the bishops have the courage to deal with our “Catholic” president in January and for his conversion.
Deacon Anderson– we truly have a deadly Satanic Presidency coming soon. A fake “Catholic” leading the Nation, with many other fake “Catholics” in power, alongside him. And the Church doesn’t care. They will all do horrific harms to our country. As predicted– a House Committee meeting has already been scheduled, to tackle getting rid of the Hyde Amendment. So taxpayers’ money will soon be given to evil Planned Parenthood.
Another “devout Catholic” in high government office! Praise Jesus and the Virgin Mary! Prayers answered! Consecrations fulfilled! What a year for the church! God is faithful! He really does listen to and help his people.
And Kevin T doesn’t know what day it is
He doesn’t know who Jesus was
Or what praying is
How can he be saved
From the eternal grave?
Kevin T, can you hear me?
Kevin T, can you hear me?
Kevin T, can you hear me?
Kevin T can you hear me?
Kevin T, can you hear me?
Can you, can you, can you hear me?
How can he be saved?
Sigh. It’s Monday, Pearl Harbor day and the eve of the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception. Jesus is the incarnate eternal Word, second person of the Blessed Trinity, made flesh, conceived virginally in Mary’s womb; who was born, suffered, died and rose from the dead for human salvation. Praying is communicating with God by turning our hearts and minds to him communally or personally in thanksgiving, praise, petition or lament, and sometimes in silence. I can only be saved by God’s grace through the merits of Jesus Christ.
And still, pro-lifers and faithful Catholics have to feel like they’ve been kicked in the head over and over again. Biden and Becerra are going to set back prolife efforts a decade or more. When then of petitionary prayer? What then of all prolifers’ efforts coming to nothing?
The Church is getting whipped. It’s looking like there’s no supernatural reality. Yeah, I feel like the apostles did between Good Friday and Easter morning. I know I’m not alone. Hardly alone.
Count me with Thomas the Apostle, who wanted proof. Show me. Too much has gone wrong and is worsening for me to just accept it on blind faith. Show me. What’s wrong with that? Thomas is a saint, yet he didn’t accept the resurrection on blind faith. He wanted proof and got it. So let’s see it in our day as things continue to fall apart.
Pray the Creed. “I believe in God the Father ALMIGHTY.
I know someone who lost faith in the Church because Pope Benedict XVI was elected.
You just can’t tell people. Everybody has their own idea of how God is supposed to act. Those who really mean “Thy Will be done” don’t fall away because of something in the world. They assume it is God’s Will. If not His primary Will, then His secondary Will. And they know that He is al-knowing, all-good, all-powerful.
I googled your phrase “saved by God’s grace through the merits of Jesus Christ”. Came up Lutheran. And Mormon.
“I googled your phrase “saved by God’s grace through the merits of Jesus Christ”. Came up Lutheran. And Mormon.”
Ouch.
Keith and Anonymous, what Kevin wrote is entirely consistent with Catholic faith: CCC 1992 “Justification has been merited for us by the Passion of Christ who offered himself on the cross as a living victim, holy and pleasing to God, and whose blood has become the instrument of atonement for the sins of all men.”
Get your theology and doctrine from a better source than google or wikipedia.
So many who post here have a tribal mentality “us against them” instead of a truth mentality. Lutherans and Catholics are in agreement about being saved by grace through Christ’s merits on the cross. They have some disagreements about cooperating with grace through good works. Even many Catholics don’t understand what the Church teaches about faith and works: even our good works are only possible by God’s grace; we do nothing good of ourselves without God’s grace. So, strictly speaking, everything good and all salvation is due to God’s grace.
The quote about justification from the catechism is true, of course. But that is not what Kevin T. wrote. I did not say he was wrong, just that the phrase he used comes up as Lutheran or Mormon on google.
Justification and salvation are related but not identical.
2005 Since it belongs to the supernatural order, grace escapes our experience and cannot be known except by faith. We cannot therefore rely on our feelings or our works to conclude that we are justified and saved.
837 Even though incorporated into the Church, one who does not however persevere in charity is not saved.
843 God…wants all men to be saved.
846 Hence they could not be saved who, knowing that the Catholic Church was founded as necessary by God through Christ, would refuse either to enter it or to remain in it.
851 Indeed, God “desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth”; that is, God wills the salvation of everyone through the knowledge of the truth. Salvation is found in the truth. Those who obey the prompting of the Spirit of truth are already on the way of salvation. But the Church, to whom this truth has been entrusted, must go out to meet their desire, so as to bring them the truth.
430 Jesus means “God saves”. There is no other name under Heaven by which we may be saved. Acts 4:12:
Catholics also believe in the necessity of Baptism although
1281 Those who die for the faith, those who are catechumens, and all those who, without knowing of the Church but acting under the inspiration of grace, seek God sincerely and strive to fulfill his will, are saved even if they have not been baptized”
Kevin, I suggest either find a solid spiritual director or just leave. We have despair; we don’t need anymore.
@ bohemond – Don’t tell Kevin T. to leave. He is on this forum because he is a faithful, frustrated Catholic and is venting his spleen, so to speak. I understand him just as much as I understand you. We need one another, and we need to listen carefully to other faith-filled Catholics in their anguish. That’s all.
Think for a minute of our brethren in places like the Middle East and Africa who are being murdered for their belief in Christ and His Church, yet they remain faithful.
@ bohemond – I think of Saint Mother Teresa of Calcutta who struggled in anguish because she did not feel God’s presence while doing her loving works of charity. How she suffered in her faith! Are those who feel similarly to be kicked out and scorned? Ours is a big Church with room for all on the spiritual spectrum.
Kevin T., this world is so old with sin! Ever since Adam’s Fall! We in America expect too much– because we are all born in such a wealthy, privileged, free democratic nation! we have not experienced war on American soil with foreign invaders— nor Communist oppression, in the modern world. Nor hopeless poverty, while a few filthy aristocrats wallow in their filthy riches. Go talk to a Holocaust survivor, or a survivor of Russian or Chinese Communist oppression. Go on a Catholic mission trip to a 3rd world nation, see the hopeless poverty, of really good people–just as good as all of us! See the rich aristocrats of that nation, rotting in their filthy rags of money and false, filthy glory! Did our good, Loving God forget the poor and oppressed?? Mankind has hurt his fellowman, all over the world! Mankind has sinned, sinned, sinned!! All mankind needs Christ, Our Savior! He lovingly offers to heal us of our suffering– but mainly, He was born to save our souls, and lead us to Heaven! Many Saints have willingly suffered unjustly, and died for Him! Yes, God hears our prayers! Good idea, to go talk to a very good priest, who can help you with our religion, and help you find peace with God. God gave us the gift of Free Will. Many abuse this gift! Our country has been taken over by Satan, since the filthy 1960s– and sadly rejects God! That is a huge problem! A major crisis! That is the crux of the whole thing! Plus, our Church hypocritucally abandoned the Catechism, Canon Law, and good moral and religious discipline, after Vatican II, embracing the harlot of the secular world. What a shame!
Good news for California residents. Horrible news for US residents. Oh well.
With all the California politicians moving into federal positions, it won’t be long until the whole country is just as messed up as California. God help us!
That is why they need to be violently opposed.
I am anti abortion. But, as long as Roe stands, it is the law of the land. So others have the secular right to choose abortion.
Another pathetic argument from Mike M. Like all liberals, they fail to understand that once the moral law is removed from the civil law that law must be opposed. No, Mike M, no one has the right to choose to kill the unborn. Why can’t liberals get it?
To choose to kill you mean. Slavery was legal. Would you be ok with someone having a slave. Legal does not make it right. If pedophilia were legal would you be ok with that too?
mike m. God will have the final word. Worship God, not man and his unjust laws. Do babies, created by GOD– have the right to live? Do they have any rights at all? When slavery was the unjust law of the land– did Blacks have any God-given rights? When it was against the law to be a Jew in Germany, and all the Jews were killed by Hitler– did they have any God-given rights? Did the early Christians, killed by Roman emperors, have any God-given rights? Would you support any horrific sin — just because it is made into an unjust “law?” A Holocaust of Baby Massacres is occurring, in America. Stand up for the poor babies– or do not call yourself a “Christian.” Do not receive the Sacraments, either– until you repent.