Becerra leaves the door open to drug testing welfare recipients

Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra on Wednesday didn’t shut the door to drug testing welfare recipients, a policy San Francisco voters approved earlier this month.

Becerra, former California attorney general, said that he didn’t want to tell cities, counties or states what actions they should take but that all options should be on the table when considering how to address the drug crisis facing the nation.

Fatal drug overdoses driven by the illicit synthetic opioid fentanyl appear to be leveling off after hitting a record high of nearly 110,000 in 2022, but still remain 50 percent higher than they were before the pandemic.

“We should be willing to consider anything that helps us tackle this drug addiction crisis because so many people are dying today,” Becerra said at POLITICO’s Health Care Summit today. “We need to get a grip on this.”

Becerra’s comments come as Democratic-controlled states and cities increasingly turn to tough-on-drug policies typically more associated with conservatives.

Under the San Francisco measure, residents who are suspected of using illegal drugs can be required to undergo screening and could be required to undergo treatment to receive welfare benefits. And Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek, a Democrat, is poised to sign new legislation making the possession of small amounts of fentanyl and heroin a misdemeanor in the state, a move that comes three years after the state decriminalized drug use.

“It surprises me little that there are communities that are trying to get a grip on this,” Becerra added. “We have work to do.”

At the summit, Becerra also addressed reproductive health care, saying he doubts that Alabama will be the last state to grapple with how to address in vitro fertilization, which it has in recent weeks after its state Supreme Court ruled that frozen embryos are people.

More than a dozen states have laws on the books granting personhood status to fetuses and embryos, which some abortion-rights advocates say leaves them one court ruling away from the Alabama situation. Iowa’s legislature is advancing legislation that Democrats and others warn would jeopardize access to IVF.

“Now we begin to see what happens when a state can determine who has the right to access the care they need — not just to decide when to have a baby but whether they do. It’s unfortunate and it should not surprise anyone, and I doubt Alabama is the last place where this will pop up,” Becerra said.

According to a fact sheet HHS released Wednesday, more than 2 percent of infants born in the U.S. in 2021 were conceived through assisted reproductive technology, or ART, with more than 400,000 cycles performed at more than 450 clinics and resulting in more than 110,000 pregnancies. IVF accounts for more than 99 percent of ART performed in the U.S.

The fact sheet also said the use of assisted reproductive technology more than doubled between 2012 and 2021, and the number of infants conceived through the procedure has increased by 50 percent. California, New York, Texas, New Jersey and Illinois have the most births using ART, and 1 in 8 women between ages 15 and 49 have received infertility services.