Pro-life groups and lawmakers denounced former Vice President Joe Biden’s choice of California Attorney General Xavier Becerra for secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

“Far from ‘uniting’ the country, Biden has proven yet again he is an extremist on abortion,” Susan B. Anthony List President Marjorie Dannenfelser said in a statement following Biden’s Monday announcement. “Becerra is aggressively pro-abortion and a foe of free speech.”

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Dannenfelser accused Becerra of persecuting “citizen journalists who exposed Planned Parenthood’s role in baby parts trafficking” such as pro-life activist David Daleiden.

“Not only that, he went all the way to the Supreme Court to try to force California’s pro-life pregnancy centers to advertise and refer for abortion—a policy the Court rejected as unconstitutional,” Dannenfelser said. “In Congress, he even voted in favor of partial-birth abortion.”

Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., tweeted that he will be voting “no” on Becerra’s appointment, and that Becerra should be “rejected by the Senate.”

“Xavier Becerra spent his career attacking pro-life Americans and tried to force crisis pregnancy centers to advertise abortions,” Cotton said. “He’s been a disaster in California and he is unqualified to lead HHS.”

Ashley McGuire, senior fellow with The Catholic Association, called Biden’s choice of Becerra “a gross insult to Catholics,” similarly citing Becerra’s action against the Little Sisters of the Poor and pro-life pregnancy resource centers.

“Thankfully both of his efforts failed at the Supreme Court,” she said. “But Becerra is outright hostile to religious liberty and Biden’s choice of someone so openly anti-Catholic is an affront to the faith that he so frequently invoked as part of his campaign.”

Becerra and the Biden campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Daily Caller News Foundation.

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