Fact check: Becerra said there’s no federal law on partial birth abortion. Is he right?
Claim: Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra said last week “There is no law that deals specifically with the term ‘partial birth abortion.’”
Rating: False. There is such a law, and it uses the term “partial birth abortion.”
Details:
The Partial Birth Abortion Ban Act became law in 2003. It passed the House on June 4, 2003, and Becerra, then a California congressman, voted against it. The bill got 62 Democratic yes votes and 133 no votes. Republicans favored it, 220 to 5.
Conservatives have been blasting Becerra for his comments about the procedure. It’s the latest salvo in their effort to convince people that the former California attorney general is unqualified to head the department. Becerra has no medical experience.
Wednesday, Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell launched a blistering attack against Becerra on the Senate floor,
“When President Biden nominated Secretary Xavier Becerra to run the Department of Health and Human Services, it was clear what the nation was getting: A hardened culture warrior with no health or medical expertise,” the Kentucky Republican said. “Where Secretary Becerra did have experience was trying to impose a far-left social agenda.”
HHS responded with a statement: “Roe v. Wade is the law of the land and HHS will continue to follow the law and ensure the American people have access to health care – including reproductive care. During the hearing, Secretary Becerra clarified that partial birth abortion is not a medically-recognized term. As the secretary said multiple times, HHS respects and will enforce the law.”
As evidence, McConnell cited Becerra’s testimony May 12 before the House Energy and Commerce Committee.
At that hearing, Rep. Gus Bilirakis, R-Florida, asked Becerra “Do you agree that partial birth abortion is illegal, sir?”
After assuring Bilirakis that his agency will follow the law, Becerra added, “there is no medical term like partial birth abortion.”
That is true. The American Medical Association says “the term ‘partial birth abortion’ is not a medical term.”
Becerra noted at the hearing that the Supreme Court’s 1973 Roe v. Wade decision is “very clear settled precedent, and a woman has a right to make decisions about her reproductive health.”
Bilirakis pressed further, asking him if he agreed with the partial birth abortion law.
“There is no law that deals specifically with the term partial birth abortion,” Becerra said.
In fact, Title 18 Section 1531 of the U. S. Code includes a provision saying any physician who “knowingly performs a partial-birth abortion and thereby kills a human fetus shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than 2 years, or both.”
The law does not apply to an abortion necessary to save the life of a mother whose “life is endangered by a physical disorder, physical illness, or physical injury, including a life-endangering physical condition caused by or arising from the pregnancy itself.”
Becerra got a chance to clarify his statement later in the hearing, when Rep. John Joyce, R-Pa., a physician, asked again if he believed the law was “correct.”
“What I’m trying to explain is that the term partial birth abortion may be recognized in politics and by politicians, but it is not a medically recognized term,” Becerra said.
“Perhaps if you were to talk about what you probably know as dilation and extraction, which is a term used by OB/GYNs like my wife to care for a woman who is having a difficult pregnancy where there is a chance the fetus will not survive, then we could talk about that,” he said.
Becerra added that he doubted most medical practitioners could “give you a medical definition of what partial birth abortion is.”
Joyce was not satisfied. “As a physician myself, Mr. Secretary, I think I clearly understand what a partial birth abortion is.”
Since the hearing, conservatives have been on the attack. Sen. James Lankford, R-Okla., tweeted that Becerra’s remarks were “absolutely horrifying.”
“President Biden’s HHS Secretary is either ignorant of this federal law… or wants to pretend it doesn’t exist,” McConnell said Wednesday.
This story was originally published May 19, 2021 at 11:56 AM with the headline "Fact check: Becerra said there’s no federal law on partial birth abortion. Is he right?."
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