Representative slams Biden’s Becerra over trans medical care: ‘History will show how wrong you are’

A U.S. lawmaker blasted Biden administration Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) Xavier Becerra after he avoided answering her directly about religious objections over trans medical care.

Appearing before the House Education and Workforce Committee, Becerra smugly challenged Rep. Mary Miller, when the Illinois Republican asked about the Biden administration’s policy of punishing health care providers who withhold dangerous transgender medical treatment over religious objections.

“Can you commit here today that your department will not withhold federal funding from hospitals, or doctors, who refuse to provide the gender affirming care that you are mandating if it violates their religious beliefs?” Miller asked Becerra.

Instead of answering the question, Becerra attacked the question.

“So now, of course, Congresswoman, you recognize you’re going somewhere completely different. First, you started talking about how a doctor should have the rights to not offer particular care. Then you stretch it out to provide for the system-wide services, which is very different,” said Becerra.

Miller’s question was in regard to Biden administration guidance from HHS in May 2021 under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

This followed a  Supreme Court ruling that found that Title VII protected the employment rights of gay and transgender employees.

The Biden administration has used that ruling to expand the definition of “sex” to include sexual orientation and gender identity under all civil rights cases, rather than using the original intention of Congress under the Act, defining “sex” as meaning biological sex at birth.  

Miller said the administration is “distorting the ruling… to push the far-left political agenda.” 

Becerra admitted that the Constitution narrowly protects doctors who do not want to perform sex change therapy because of religious objections. 

He said “if that doctor has religious objections, that doctor, under these rules, is not required to offer” transgender care.  

But he later added, “A doctor is not a hospital.”  

Miller asked Becerra to clarify the guidance, asking if the Biden administration will commit to “not withhold federal funding from those health care facilities,” such as Catholic hospitals, which don’t want to perform transgender medical care because of religious objections.  

“If a health care facility is violating the law and not providing the service they’re required, they are not entitled to the [federal] resources,” said Becerra.  

Miller said, in effect, Becerra’s answer confirms the Biden administration will “withdraw federal funding” from healthcare providers that don’t provide transgender medical care because of religious objections.  

That’s when Miller chastised Becerra and the Biden administration.  

Miller noted that the U.K. had already banned health care providers “from performing gender affirming care on minors.”  

“Their decision relied on a study that stated puberty blockers may damage a minor’s ability to think and reason and that the rationale for suppressing puberty at all remains unclear,” she said.  

She accused HHS under Biden of actively “marketing these drugs [that suppress puberty] to children.”  

“Joe Biden and his administration are attempting to force doctors and medical providers to go against their closely held religious beliefs and are forcing toxic experimental drugs on young children,” Miller said, a charge that Becerra denied.  

But a fact sheet distributed by HHS’s Office of Population Affairs calls puberty blockers and transgender care “crucial to overall health” for children and adolescents suffering from gender dysphoria.  

Miller ended by saying the Biden administration shouldn’t use the Supreme Court decision on gay and transgender employment as an excuse “to push radical policies like this rule.”  

“History will show how wrong you and Joe Biden are on this issue,” she scolded Becerra in her conclusion.