Joe Biden has tapped current California Attorney General Xavier Becerra to serve as his secretary over the Department of Health and Human Services. (Or, as Biden himself blundered through the announcement, he picked “Xavier Bakaria” to be his secretary of “Health and Education Services.”) The choice was unexpected because, well, Becerra has no experience in healthcare. However, what Biden’s choice does do is send a clear message that he intends to violate gun rights and religious liberty in the name of “healthcare.”

This reality was driven home by Biden’s choice of Dr. Vivek Murthy for U.S. surgeon general, a reprisal of his role under Barack Obama. Murthy earned the ire of Second Amendment proponents when he dubiously contended that “gun violence” should be classified as a public health issue. Given Becerra’s role in defending many of California’s draconian gun restrictions, it’s likely that he’ll be a partner in this effort at HHS.

The motive behind Biden’s choice of Becerra may also be tied to the fact that Becerra was one of the most active state attorneys general attacking the Trump administration. As The Wall Street Journal editorial boards notes, “Mr. Becerra has no expertise in how drug and insurance markets function, let alone experience running a health-care bureaucracy. His apparent primary qualification is that he’s filed 100 some lawsuits against the Trump Administration, though he’s won relatively few and lost on health-care issues.” Resistance goes a long way.

Furthermore, Becerra has deep connections to the nation’s leading abortion mill. When Planned Parenthood was exposed in a series of 2014 undercover videos for selling the body parts of aborted babies, Becerra was a member of then-California Attorney General Kamala Harris’s staff who went after citizen journalist David Daleiden and the Center for Medical Progress. For the “crime” of recording and releasing the videos, Daleiden and CMP — not Planned Parenthood — were hit with 15 felony charges.

His abortion credentials don’t stop there. PJ Media reports, “Becerra also vigorously defended a California law that mandated pregnancy resource centers (PRCs), most of which are pro-life, must advertise abortion on placards. In National Institute for Life Advocates (NIFLA) v. Becerra (2018), the Supreme Court struck down the law, defending the pregnancy centers’ free speech.”

Meanwhile, the editors of National Review write, “Becerra has also zealously defended a California law requiring abortion coverage in insurance plans offered by churches — yes, churches. In January, the Office of Civil Rights at the Department of Health and Human Services ruled that California’s abortion mandate violated a federal law known as the Weldon amendment, which prohibits federal funding of states and localities that force health providers and insurers to participate in or cover abortion. Becerra announced California would not comply.”

The Little Sisters of the Poor — the group of nuns that became famous for resisting the Obama administration’s ridiculous mandate that all health insurance plans cover contraception — also found themselves in Becerra’s crosshairs. After the Trump administration defended the Little Sisters, Becerra filed a legal challenge and complained, “These anti-women’s health regulations prove once again that the Trump Administration is willing to trample on people’s rights.” That would be “trampling on people’s rights” to not have to buy contraceptives in violation of their religious beliefs.

Did Joe Biden mention that he’s “Catholic”?

Biden’s choice of Becerra reveals his plan to use the HHS as a political instrument to promote the hard-left policy agenda against Americans’ First and Second Amendment rights, all under the guise of protecting Americans’ health. Becerra is simply a hardcore leftist activist who, given the chance, will use the power of government to force his agenda onto the country.

(Updated.)