HHS Sec. Xavier Becerra ‘Exploring’ Abortion Clinics on Federal Land

Despite the high-decibel leftist rhetoric, abortion is not vanishing from America. Dobbs simply returned the question to the states, where it always belonged. Nevertheless, the Biden administration, urged on by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, is apparently exploring the possibility of putting abortion clinics on federal property. This is almost certainly illegal but, as our Southern border shows, a little thing like breaking the law isn’t going to stop the Biden administration. There is an amusing irony, though, with the plan, at least if it comes to an ad campaign such as “Visit Yellowstone and get an abortion while you’re there.”

In the short clip, below, of an interview with Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra, Chuck Todd raises Ocasio-Cortez’s idea about putting abortion clinics on federal property, although without mentioning that the Hyde Amendment makes it illegal to use federal funds for abortions unless the abortions are to save the mother or in the case of rape or incest. However, you can see that Becerra still says that his Department is considering the idea:

HHS’s @XavierBecerra: We’re “continuing to explore” turning national parks into abortion mills pic.twitter.com/gY3II0apAU

— Tom Elliott (@tomselliott) July 4, 2022

My suspicion is that the little window that HHS is exploring under Becerra’s guidance is the fact that the Hyde limitation is solely for federal funds, not for funds from other sources:

(b) Nothing in the preceding section shall be construed as prohibiting the expenditure by a State, locality, entity, or private person of State, local, or private funds (other than a State’s or locality’s contribution of Medicaid matching funds).

(c) Nothing in the preceding section shall be construed as restricting the ability of any managed care provider from offering abortion coverage or the ability of a State or locality to contract separately with such a provider for such coverage with State funds (other than a State’s or locality’s contribution of Medicaid matching funds).

In other words, if someone else pays for the abortion clinics, including leasing space on the federal land, then women in a state that bans abortion can travel to a federal park within that state to get an abortion. I will not opine about whether that’s a good idea or, as the old saying goes, it’s “too clever by half” because I’m not very conversant with this area of law.

However, the notion of abortion mills on federal lands (e.g., “Come to the Shiloh Civil War battlefield in Mississippi and get an abortion”) struck me as very funny. Why? Because just a week or so ago, Vice, a hard-left outlet, was insisting that the American national parks are hotbeds of White Supremacy that are so off-putting that Blacks are loath to step foot in them.

Combine that fact with the three things we know about abortion. First, Margaret Sanger, the godmother of American abortion, was a eugenicist who viewed abortion as a way to phase out Blacks in America. Second, Planned Parenthood targets minorities, with 86% of Planned Parenthood facilities in minority communities. Third, much of the shrieking from the left about the Dobbs decision has been framed as an attack on the Supreme Court for being racist by depriving poor Black women of abortion access.

So, on the one hand, you have the fact that abortion has long been, and continues to be, targeted at Black women. And on the other hand, you have the possibility that the newest abortion facilities in America will be placed in the very national parks that the left insists are hotbeds of KKK-style anti-Black, White supremacy.

What this means is that if—solely for the sake of argument—one accepts the leftist contention about national parks, there’s something fiendishly amusing about the fact that AOC and Becerra want to put abortion facilities in the heart of the same national parks that, like Sanger herself, are home to those who want to rid America of Black people.

Of course, in a sane world, we understand that, given the Holocaust of Black babies consumed through abortion, it’s the pro-lifers who support the Black community, not the pro-abortionists, who are doing everything they can to wipe out more Black lives. Put another way, for the pro-Lifers, Black Lives really do matter at a profound spiritual and moral level. Plunking an abortion clinic next to Martin Luther King’s home or on a Civil War battlefield is the greatest insult that can be offered to all those, both Black and White, who have fought for liberty for all Americans, no matter their race.