Sen. Kennedy twists Biden's HHS secretary into pretzel with basic questions about abortion: 'Why are you scared to answer?'

Secretary of Health and Human Services Xavier Becerra refused this week to support any restrictions on abortion.

During a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing on Tuesday, Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) posed a simple question to Becerra: Do you support the abortion of a healthy unborn baby up until the moment of birth?

"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 the right to abort the baby then?" Kennedy asked.

But instead of answering the question, Becerra argued that no one is promoting late-term abortions. The Republican senator responded by quoting Becerra's own words from a press release when he was attorney general of California. "No government, state or federal, has the right to make decisions for a woman about her body or her health care," Becerra said at the time.

"Your words, not mine," Kennedy said.

"Good words," Becerra quipped.

"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?" Kennedy followed up.

"I have always supported Roe v. Wade, which does not do what you just said," Becerra responded. "I know of no one who is proposing or advocating what you've just announced, and I would hope 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."

For the next several minutes, Kennedy and Becerra fought back and forth over his refusal to provide any direct answers.

Kennedy refined his question, asking Becerra if he supports restrictions on abortions in the third-trimester, but he repeatedly dodged the question. Becerra would only say that he trusts women to make their own decisions while reiterating his support for Roe.

"Why are you embarrassed to answer?" Kennedy finally asked. "Why are you scared to answer the question?"

Becerra denied being embarrassed or scared, and yet he never answered Kennedy's question. It was clear the secretary did not want to say publicly that he supports any restrictions on abortion, even if that meant appearing to support late-term abortions.

"You're dodgin' and weavin' and flip-floppin' like a mad catfish," Kennedy observed.

For the record: Becerra never provided a substantive answer to Kennedy's questions, for which a simple "yes" or "no" would have sufficed.

Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!