Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) is known for adeptly dismantling leftists who testify before the Senate, and it's impossible not to appreciate his strategy and precision in exposing various nominees and witnesses as incompetent.
However, his interrogation of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Xavier Becerra on Tuesday showcased a different accomplishment.
During the questioning, Kennedy exposed the weakness in the Democratic Party's stance on abortion by questioning whether there were any circumstances under which he would advocate for restrictions on abortion.
“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?” Kennedy asked.
"Senator, let me make sure — to the moment of birth? You’re saying after gestation, the 40 weeks—” Becerra replied.
"You know what I'm saying," Kennedy interrupted, clearly not interested in playing games. “Mr. Secretary, let’s 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?”
"I've heard no one say that,' Becerra claimed. "I think everyone has said — those who support reproductive rights and said they support Roe v Wade."
Kennedy came with receipts, and he quoted a 2020 statement in which Becerra 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 pointed out. “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.”
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"I'll give you the answer," Becerra replied. "I have always supported Roe v, Wade, which doesn’t do what you just said. And I know of no one who is proposing or advocating what you just announced. And I would hope that what you would recognize is that that should not stop a woman from having the right to decide for herself, with the ... consultation of her physician, what she should do."
This is all pro-abortion boilerplate right here. Leftists never want to go on record one way or another on the issue of late-term abortion, and Kennedy wasn't going to let Becerra avoid answering the question.
"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," Kennedy asked.
"I certainly would support the reestablishment of Roe v. Wade," he replied, again avoiding answering the question.
"Okay," Kennedy replied, clearly frustrated. He asked repeatedly, and Becerra kept giving the same non-response.
"Why are you dodging the question?" Kennedy asked. Becerra claimed he wasn't, even though he kept falling back on saying he supported Roe v. Wade. Kennedy called him out again, asking him, "Why are you embarrassed to answer?"
Why are you embarrassed to answer?
— SBA Pro-Life America (@sbaprolife) April 16, 2024
"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
The reason Becerra wouldn't answer the question is obvious. Polls have shown for years that even Americans who support legal abortion support it with certain restrictions. Support for abortion decreases significantly with each trimester. Only about 13% of Americans support abortion in the third trimester, which means that publicly supporting late-term abortion is a risky proposition because it would prove that Democrats don't have a mainstream position on the issue.
This is what Republicans running for office need to do with their Democrat opponents: put them on defense on abortion. Chances are good that Democrats will never say they support any restrictions on abortion whatsoever because they can't offend the abortion lobby that owns them. This makes it easy for Republicans to define their opponents as extremists.
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