On September 17, 2021, Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Xavier Becerra announced that the federal government will act through his agency in an attempt to shield abortion businesses from the consequences of the Pro-Life Texas Heartbeat Act. The announcement indicated that HHS would provide grants—up to $10 million—in “family planning” services through Title X. The move is presented as addressing a need that does not exist and is intended to prop up the abortion industry that has been reined in by strong Pro-Life policies in Texas.
Becerra’s announcement comes in coordination with other pro-abortion actions from the federal government that attempt to halt or undermine the Texas Heartbeat Act, which went into effect September 1. The Pro-Life Texas law protects preborn babies from the time they have a detectable heartbeat, around six weeks’ gestation. The Pro-Life protections, the strongest in effect in the nation, have effectively shut down most of the abortion industry in Texas.
Pro-aborts are fearmongering that restricting elective abortion will lead to a crisis. As we have seen previously, ensuring that the abortion industry does not receive tax dollars and a declining abortion rate has not corresponded with an increase in unintended pregnancy. Nevertheless, the HHS, with clear anti-Life partisanship, has called the federal funding initiative “Funding to Address Dire Need for Family Planning Services.” A form of Title X grants, these funds would go to providers offering emergency contraception and “family planning services.”
The Pro-Life Trump Administration blocked taxpayer dollars from going to abortion businesses. Under the anti-Life Biden lead, of course, bureaucrats have worked to strip Pro-Life protections from every level of government and redirect your tax dollars to the abortion industry, including businesses like Planned Parenthood.
Becerra has a history of anti-Life favors for the abortion industry. As attorney general in California, Becerra ignored the documented crimes of abortion giant Planned Parenthood in harvesting body parts from aborted babies and selling them for profit. Instead, Becerra pursued bogus charges against Pro-Life journalist David Daleiden for his undercover investigation that brought the crimes to light. Picking up where now-Vice President Kamala Harris left off in aiding their friends at Planned Parenthood, Becerra refiled the egregious charges after they were dismissed. To this day, Daleiden and his associates are fighting bogus charges for revealing the abortion industry’s criminal activity.
In addition to his cronyism with the abortion industry as attorney general in California, Becerra has demonstrated abortion extremism throughout his political career. Becerra would not accept a single restriction on elective abortion and has defended his support for the barbaric and inhumane partial birth abortion procedure when he was a U.S. congressman.
Becerra is not acting as a lone abortion radical, however, but in concert with the anti-Life administration that he serves. In the announcement, Becerra’s department said that the action was “in response to President Biden’s directive” to have a coordinated anti-Life response to the Pro-Life policies in Texas. Becerra added that HHS’s actions were to counteract a “dangerous attack on Texans’ health care,” which is false because abortion is not healthcare and stopping abortions saves lives, rather than endangering them.
Becerra continued, “Today we are making clear that doctors and hospitals have an obligation under federal law to make medical decisions regarding when it’s appropriate to treat their patients. And we are telling doctors and others involved in the provision of abortion care, that we have your back.” Under the guise of “conscience protections,” HHS may in fact be trying to force Pro-Life health care professionals to commit abortions, whether or not they want.
The Biden Administration has demonstrated, once again, that the abortion industry has influence in the White House. Joe Biden went from a supposed “moderate” on the legal killing of the preborn, claiming that although he was personally Pro-Life, he would not fight for the legal protection of the preborn, to acting directly for the benefit of the abortion industry. From the Justice Department to HHS and the United States Congress, the Biden Administration is doing everything possible to prevent Texas from saving lives. Pro-Life Texans stand strong.