‘Moderate’ California Governor Candidate Weaponized the Law Against Conservatives on Abortion, Transgender Ideology
To hear the legacy media tell it, the sensible “middle-of-the-road” and “centrist” Xavier Becerra is likely to proceed to the runoff in the California governor race, and while he may have been the establishment pick, he’s far from moderate on abortion or transgender ideology.
In fact, Becerra has an ugly record of weaponizing the law against conservatives.
Becerra spent 24 years in the House of Representatives before California Gov. Jerry Brown, also a Democrat, appointed him attorney general to replace the outgoing Kamala Harris. After four years as attorney general, Becerra led the Department of Health and Human Services under President Joe Biden.
Becerra wielded the attorney general’s office against conservatives.
Becerra’s Record as Attorney General
In March 2017, he filed 15 charges against David Daleiden and Sandra Merritt, the pro-life journalists who went undercover to expose Planned Parenthood’s sale of aborted baby body parts. Becerra was defending big abortion from conservative reporters who alerted the world to a truly horrific human trafficking business.
In January 2025, Daleiden and Merritt pleaded no contest to one felony count under a settlement with California. They faced no jail time, fines, or admissions of wrongdoing, and the court expunged the case in April.
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“After enduring 9 years of weaponized political prosecution, putting an end to the lawfare launched by Kamala Harris is a huge victory for my investigative reporting and for the public’s right to know the truth about Planned Parenthood’s sale of aborted baby body parts,” Daleiden said in a statement on the January 2025 settlement.
Becerra also defended California’s Reproductive FACT Act when the National Institute of Family Life Advocates sued to block it. NIFLA claimed the law would force pro-life pregnancy centers, which it represents, to refer women to abortion centers.
The Supreme Court ruled the law unconstitutional in 2018, finding that it violated the pregnancy centers‘ First Amendment rights.
Becerra also faced a Supreme Court rebuke for demanding donor information from conservative organizations. California law demanded the disclosure of donors, and the attorney general’s office under Harris demanded Americans for Prosperity and the Thomas More Law Center hand over their donor information. Both groups sued, and Becerra fought to defend the disclosures in court.
Ultimately, the Supreme Court upheld the conservative groups’ right to keep their donor information secret, citing the key civil rights-era precedent of NAACP v. Alabama (1958).
As attorney general, he also sued the Department of Health and Human Services under President Donald Trump’s first administration, aiming to prevent HHS from rescinding an Obama-era rule forcing transgender ideology in health care. The rule, Section 1557 of the Affordable Care Act (better known as Obamacare), interpreted “discrimination on the basis of sex” to include discrimination on the basis of gender identity. This required health care entities to perform hysterectomies on women who identify as men, and otherwise endorse transgender ideology.
Becerra Weaponizes HHS
The HHS under President Trump’s first administration rescinded the Obama rule, but when Becerra took the reins at HHS, he reinstated it. The Religious Sisters of Mercy, an order of Catholic nuns who operate a health care center in Michigan, sued for the right to opt out of the rule. HHS again rescinded the rule last year.
Under Becerra, HHS also reinterpreted the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act, a federal law passed in 1986, to require hospitals to perform abortions in emergency situations, even in states that ban abortions.
The new rule came two weeks after the Supreme Court overturned the abortion precedent Roe v. Wade (1973) in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization (2022). Pro-life organizations joined the state of Texas in suing to block the rule, and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit upheld an injunction blocking it.
The second Trump administration reversed the Biden-era EMTALA rule last year.
The Left’s Culture Warrior
Time and time again, Becerra proved himself not only to be a radical proponent of abortion and gender ideology, but an avowed opponent of Americans who objected to his radical positions.
He charged pro-life journalists for exposing Planned Parenthood. He fought to force pro-life pregnancy centers to promote abortion. He demanded conservative groups hand over their donor lists. He tried to force health care professionals to endorse transgender ideology, even trying to bend Catholic nuns to his will.
Make no mistake: Xavier Becerra is no middle-of-the-road moderate when it comes to enforcing the Left’s culture war agenda. He may not be outwardly unhinged, but that doesn’t mean he won’t pose a threat to the rights of conservative Californians.
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