US President Joe Biden said the Supreme Court ruling overturning abortion rights was an exercise of “crude political power” and signed an executive order on Friday to help protect access to abortion services.
Mr. Biden, a Democrat, is under pressure from his own party to act after last month’s landmark decision overturning Roe v. Wade, which overturned roughly 50 years of protections for women’s reproductive rights.
The president’s powers are limited because US states can pass laws restricting abortion and access to medicine, and the executive order is expected to have limited impact.
“What we witnessed was not a constitutional decision, but an exercise of brute political power,” Mr. Biden told reporters at the White House, after citing many of the dissenting opinions in the ruling.
“We cannot allow an out-of-control Supreme Court, working in concert with extremist elements of the Republican Party, to take away our liberties and personal autonomy,” he said.
The White House has not publicly entertained the idea of reforming the court itself or expanding the nine-member panel, an option pushed by the chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, Rep. Pramila Jayapal.
In his speech on Friday, Mr. Biden instead laid out how abortion rights could be secured by voters if they elect more pro-choice senators and noted that the Supreme Court majority was about women’s “political power.”
“I don’t think the court, or for that matter the Republicans … have any idea of the power of American women,” he said, adding that he believes women will turn out in record numbers in the November election to restore women’s rights.
He also cited recent reports that a 10-year-old girl in Ohio was forced to travel to Indiana to have an abortion after being raped.
“Imagine you are a little girl. Just imagine that you are a little girl of 10 years old. Does anyone believe this? he said.
In June, Biden condemned the court’s decision and suggested that US senators remove the legislative hurdle by temporarily removing the Senate’s provision to restore abortion rights. The proposal was rejected by aides to key Democratic senators Kirsten Sinema and Joe Manchin.
Sources told Reuters earlier in June that the White House was unlikely to take bold steps toward abortion access that Democratic lawmakers have called for, such as judicial reform or offering reproductive services on federal lands.
On Friday, Mr. Biden directed the Department of Health and Human Services to take action to protect and expand access to “medication abortion” approved by the Food and Drug Administration, the White House said.
A pill used to terminate early pregnancies is unlikely to be available over the counter for years, experts said. States that already restrict the drugs will not be affected by the presidential order.
Mr. Biden also ordered the department to ensure that women have access to emergency medical care, family planning services and contraception, including intrauterine devices (IUDs).
In the executive order, Mr. Biden also directed his attorney general and White House counsel to convene pro bono lawyers and other organizations to provide legal advice to abortion patients as well as abortion providers.
“Such representation may include protecting the right to travel out of state to seek medical care,” the White House said in a statement.
The Supreme Court ruling restored the ability of states to ban abortions. As a result, women with unwanted pregnancies are faced with the choice of traveling to another country where the procedure remains legal and affordable, buying abortion pills online, or having a potentially dangerous illegal abortion.
The issue could help Democrats get to the polls in November’s midterm elections, when Republicans have a chance to take control of Congress. Democrats hold a slim majority in the House of Representatives and control the evenly divided Senate through the vote of Vice President Kamala Harris.
Mr. Biden’s executive order also aims to protect patient privacy and ensure the safety of mobile abortion clinics at state lines, and directs the creation of a task force to coordinate the administration’s response on access to reproductive health, it said. The White House.
The Supreme Court’s decision is expected to have a disproportionate impact on black women and other women of color, who have traditionally faced huge costs and logistical hurdles in getting reproductive health care, experts said.
This content appears as provided to The Globe by the original telegraph service. Not edited by Globe staff.
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