In a U.S. House Education & Labor Committee hearing on Wednesday, HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra refused to answer whether or not partial-birth abortion is in fact illegal (it is), instead restating boilerplate Democrat language about how he supports the Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision. When pressed by Rep. Jim Banks (R-Ind.), Becerra also refused to commit to investigating the University of Pittsburgh's alleged illegal human tissue extraction from the bodies of aborted babies.
Becerra's non-answers are very telling. They are indicative of a disturbing pattern by the Left of refusing to investigate violations of the law—or even acknowledge that the law exists—when it comes to partial-birth abortion, infanticide, and fetal tissue experimentation.
Becerra's misleading testimony also comes at a particularly tragic time in the fight to protect babies from infanticide and experimentation. Just this week, it has come to light that the bodies of five babies, who were very likely victims of infanticide, were recovered from an abortion facility in Washington, D.C. in late March. This has led Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.), along with 22 other senators and congressman, to send a letter to D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser, D.C. Chief of Police Robert Contee, and U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland demanding that they investigate the deaths of these babies because of evidence suggesting "illegal partial-birth abortion" or that they babies "may have been born alive and later killed." The Susan B. Anthony List has also sent a letter asking for an investigation.
Predictably, D.C. police have said that "there doesn't seem to be anything criminal in nature" about the deaths of the babies and have so far refused to perform autopsies on them to determine this definitively. This further illustrates the Left's strategy when it comes to infanticide: deny that it exists, and when confronted with the bodies of babies, insist that there is "nothing to see here."
It's clear that the Left has decided on an overall strategy about how to handle the unpleasant topics of partial-birth abortion, infanticide, and fetal tissue research—give vague answers and change the subject as quickly as possible. They know that they are in an uncomfortable position because even most "pro-choice" Americans do not support late-term abortion and all that it entails. Yet progressives still cannot bring themselves to say anything that might be construed as a concession to the pro-life cause, so they find themselves indirectly defending infanticide, as HHS Secretary Becerra's most recent comments illustrate and as former Virginia Governor Ralph Northam's 2019 comments most infamously exposed.
But it's not just unborn babies that the Left is choosing to sacrifice at the altar of progressivism. It's also clear that the Biden administration won't lift a finger to protect minors who are struggling with gender dysphoria from being pushed into taking drugs to block normal puberty, taking cross-sex hormones, and undergoing gender reassignment surgery. During Wednesday's hearing, Rep. Mary Miller (R-Ill.) asked Becerra, "Is it child abuse to perform a sex change operation on a 12-year-old child or younger?"
"I'm not going down that rat hole with you," Becerra responded.
But later in the same hearing, Becerra did in fact go down that rat hole. When asked by Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) if he favored HHS funding for gender reassignment surgeries for minors with gender dysphoria, Becerra responded, "I will do everything I can to defend any American, including children ... if they talk about gender affirming care, I am there to protect the rights of any American."
During the hearing, Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-N.C.) also pointed out that Becerra's HHS is in affect "encourag[ing] minors to receive permanent gender-reassignment surgery and hormone treatments" by requiring government health insurance exchanges to include funding for these surgeries and hormone treatments for those experiencing gender dysphoria.
America must not let the Biden administration get away with taking America down this moral and cultural rat hole where infanticide and child abuse are celebrated as rights. We must spread the word as far and wide as possible on the horrors that are occurring in abortion facilities and with minors who are confused about their sex being permanently sterilized and maimed. We can contact our state lawmakers to ensure that our states have protections for infants born alive after failed abortions and against fetal tissue experimentation. Most importantly, we can stand firm as "pinnacle-issue voters" in the voting booth so that we will elect federal officials who enforce the laws that protect unplanned babies from being killed and protect vulnerable minors from the child abuse of permanent sterilization and the removal of healthy organs.
