May 13, 2021 Catholic News Agency The Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) on Wednesday would not acknowledge an existing federal ban on “partial-birth abortion.” During a hearing of the House Energy and Commerce subcommittee on health, Rep. Gus Bilirakis (R-Fla.) asked HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra if he agreed that partial-birth abortion is illegal. Becerra answered that “[t]here is no medical term like ‘partial-birth abortion’,” and that “[t]here is no law that deals specifically with the term ‘partial-birth abortion’.” In 2003, Congress passed the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act, signed into law by President George W. Bush. The law amended the federal criminal code to outlaw partial-birth abortion, defining it as a procedure where a baby is partially delivered until either the baby’s head or trunk is outside the mother’s body, and the doctor acts to kill the baby. An exception was made for cases where the mother s life is in danger.
Pro-life demonstrators hold up signs during the 2020 March for Life in Washington, D.C. on Jan. 24, 2020. | The Christian Post
The nationâs top health official denied the existence of a federal law that bans partial-birth abortions nationwide during a congressional hearing this week, receiving criticism from a prominent pro-life activist organization.Â
Rep. Gus Bilirakis, R-Fla., asked Health & Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra during Wednesdayâs House Energy and Commerce Committeeâs Health Subcommittee hearing if the administration would uphold legislation banning partial-birth abortion.Â
Bilirakis also asked Becerra, the former attorney general of California and former member of Congress, if he believed the practice was illegal.Â
HHS Secretary: There is no law against partial-birth abortion – Catholic World Report catholicworldreport.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from catholicworldreport.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
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Is the Biden administration attempting to unilaterally erase federal law? On Wednesday, Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Xavier Becerra denied the existence of the Partial Birth Abortion Ban Act of 2003, a law that bans the brutal procedure of intact dilation and extraction abortions. He explicitly said, “There is no law that deals specifically with the term ‘partial-birth abortion. ” He suggested that
Roe v. Wade (1973) would allow such a practice.
That is a grotesque lie and it appears to be an attempt to erase history and the plain text of American law.
In 2003, Congress passed and President George W. Bush signed the Partial Birth Abortion Ban Act. In 2007, the Supreme Court upheld the law in
During a hearing of a House Energy and Commerce Committee Health subcommittee Wednesday, Rep. Gus Bilirakis (R-FL) asked Becerra if he intends to “follow the law,” as he said during his confirmation hearing, and if that included the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban.
Becerra responded, “There is no law that deals specifically with the term ‘partial-birth abortion.’”
The law itself provides a definition for Partial-Birth Abortion:
(1) A moral, medical, and ethical consensus exists that the
practice of performing a partial-birth abortion–an abortion in
which a physician deliberately and intentionally vaginally
delivers a living, unborn child’s body until either the entire