Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra admitted during a congressional hearing on Wednesday that hospitals with religious objections to transgender mutilation will lose federal funding.
“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, you know, mandating, if it violates their religious beliefs?” Republican Rep. Mary Miller, chairwoman of the House Education and Workforce Committee, asked Becerra.
Becerra ignored the question and scolded Miller for asking it.
“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. Very different,” Becerra said.
🚨After attempting to lie, HHS Secretary Becerra says the quiet part out loud. Joe Biden’s government will withhold funds from religious hospitals that refuse to provide sex-change operations for young children. pic.twitter.com/pEX4LC82TF
— Rep. Mary Miller (@RepMaryMiller) May 15, 2024
Undeterred by Becerra’s obfuscating, Miller pressed the Biden appointee further.
“You put out this guidance and doctors need to know what are you going to do if they refuse to provide this care?” Miller asked again.
Becerra claimed doctors with “religious objections” to cutting off the breasts and genitals of physically healthy people are protected under conscience objection rules and are “not required” to wreak irreversible damage on bodies.
The Biden administration, however, has worked overtime to undo these protections. Under President Joe Biden, health-care workers whose conscience
