Biden health pick will have to tread carefully on abortion, family planning
As President Joe Biden works to overhaul U.S. health care policy, few challenges loom larger for his health secretary than restoring access to family planning while parrying legal challenges to abortion proliferating across the country.
Physicians, clinics and women’s health advocates are looking to Xavier Becerra, Biden’s nominee to run the Department of Health and Human Services, to help swiftly unwind Trump-era funding cuts and rules that decimated the nation’s network of reproductive health providers over the past four years.
But Becerra, who as California’s attorney general fought the Trump administration’s family planning restrictions, faces increasingly conservative federal courts that have backed efforts to restrict reproductive health services, including a Supreme Court dominated by Republican appointees.
The new administration must also contend with an energized antiabortion movement looking to leverage political power in red state legislatures to finally achieve its decades-long quest to ban abortion outright.
Any Biden administration moves to preserve abortion and other family planning services could set up new legal battles between the federal government and states.
“It’s a minefield,” said Mary Ziegler, a law professor at Florida State University who has written extensively about the history of the nation’s abortion debate.
“Expectations on both sides are extremely high,” she said. “And the Supreme Court may force the issue to the top of the agenda if it does something aggressive to restrict abortion.”
The outlines of the brewing showdown came further into focus Tuesday as Becerra faced opposition from a number of Republicans on the Senate health committee on the first of two days of confirmation hearings.
“For many of us, your record has been … very extreme,” Sen. Mike Braun (R-Ind.) told Becerra at the hearing, accusing him of being “against pro-life.”
By contrast, Becerra has drawn strong support from abortion rights groups, which have applauded his efforts challenging Trump restrictions on family planning services. “He will be a great partner,” said Alexis McGill Johnson, president of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America.