Senator John Kennedy (R-LA) hammered Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Xavier Becerra regarding his stance on abortion, questioning whether there were any circumstances in which he would endorse imposing limitations on women seeking to terminate their pregnancies.
During a Tuesday hearing, Kennedy presented a hypothetical scenario involving a healthy baby and mother one day before the due date, yet Becerra consistently declined to state whether he would endorse prohibiting abortion even under those circumstances.
Why are you embarrassed to answer?
"Would you support making it illegal to abort a baby, if the mother is healthy, and the baby is healthy, on the day before that baby is scheduled to be born?"@SenJohnKennedy presses @SecBecerra on his support for no-limits abortion pic.twitter.com/K2mkoSGW0i
— SBA Pro-Life America (@sbaprolife) April 16, 2024
Kennedy jumped straight to the heart of his questions after welcoming Becerra to the hearing.
“Mr. Secretary, if the mother is healthy and the baby is healthy, do you really support abortion of the baby up to the moment of birth?” he asked.
“Senator, let me make sure — to the moment of birth? You’re saying after gestation, the 40 weeks —” Becerra responded, attempting to get some clarification.
“Let’s suppose — suppose it’s the day before the due date, and the baby is fully formed, and the baby is healthy, and the mother is healthy. Do you support aborting — the right to abort the baby then?” Kennedy asked again.
“I heard no one say that,” protested Becerra, asserting that advocates for “reproductive rights” were solely expressing support for the provisions outlined in the recently overturned 1973 case Roe v. Wade.
At that, Kennedy made reference to a 2020 statement from Becerra, who said: “No government, state or federal, has the right to make decisions for a woman about her body or her health care.”
“Your words, not mine,” Kennedy added. “I ask you again, up to the moment of birth, if the mother’s healthy and the baby’s healthy, do you believe that there should be the right to abort that baby? Up to the moment of birth.”
Becerra again claimed that he had “always supported Roe v Wade, which doesn’t do what you just said.” He stated again that the decision should be entirely up to a woman and her doctor.
That led Kennedy to triple down on his question that Becerra was obviously trying to avoid answering, the Daily Wire noted.
Kennedy made another attempt, directly questioning Becerra on whether he would endorse any restrictions on abortion when both mother and baby were healthy and the baby was full term. The HHS Secretary responded by stating that he would support reinstating Roe.
“I want your answer,” Kennedy pressed again. “Roe v. Wade has been overturned. I want your answer.”
He never got one.
