Xavier Becerra may support assisted suicide, but even he seems to be aware that persecuting nuns would damage his public image. That may be the reason why he made such a misleading claim on Wednesday.
President Biden’s nominee for secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) stated during his confirmation hearing in front of the Senate Finance Committee that he has “never sued any nuns,” according to Catholic News Agency.
While it is true that Becerra has never sued nuns, the California attorney general has a history of victimizing them.
Despite being a Catholic, Becerra sued "six federal agencies and the March for Life Education and Defense Fund" in 2017, according to the Washington Examiner, to revoke the religious exemptions from the HHS Contraceptive Mandate that had been given to organizations such as the Little Sisters of the Poor.
In 2020, HHS deemed that he had violated federal conscience laws when another group of nuns, the Missionary Guadalupanas of the Holy Spirit, objected to California’s universal abortion coverage mandate. Becerra refused to obey HHS orders to comply with the laws, and HHS responded by denying California $200 million in Medicaid funds.
Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.) noted that Becerra’s vendetta against nuns was driving him to the point of obsession.
“It does seem like, as [California] Attorney General, you spent an inordinate amount of time and effort suing pro-life organizations like Little Sisters of the Poor, or trying to ease restrictions or expand abortion,” the senator said during the hearings.
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All in all, Becerra was telling the truth. He never sued any nuns. Instead, he set out to make them violate their beliefs. And in the end, that’s far worse than suing them.