WASHINGTON — Under pressure to do more to respond to the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, President Biden issued an executive order Friday designed to ensure access to abortion drugs and emergency contraception as he prepares for upcoming legal battles.
But the order is vague about how the president hopes to achieve those goals, leaving the details largely to Xavier Becerra, his Health and Human Services secretary, who said the administration has no “magic bullet” that can restore abortion access .
And Mr. Biden’s order fell short of demands from abortion rights advocates, who criticized him for failing to act quickly after the court’s decision two weeks ago.
Speaking to reporters at the White House before signing the document, Mr Biden condemned the court’s decision as “horrendous, egregious and, in my opinion, so completely wrong”. The order will help protect some access to reproductive services, he said, but the only real way to protect access is to elect more lawmakers who support those services.
“For God’s sake, there are elections in November. Vote. Vote. Vote. Vote,” the president said, noting that the court’s majority in the ruling “virtually challenges” women to assert their political power to introduce laws that restore abortion rights. “Consider the challenge accepted, court.”
In his remarks, Mr. Biden condemned the news of a 10-year-old girl in Ohio who became pregnant after being raped and was forced to leave her state to have an abortion. Still, he all but admitted his powerlessness, saying the “fastest possible route” to restoring abortion rights is the ballot box.
“I hope and strongly believe that women will actually come forward in record numbers to reclaim the rights” the court has taken away from them, he said.
Meanwhile, he said, “I am signing this important executive order.”
Opponents of abortion rights criticized the president’s order, accusing the administration of trying to find ways to increase abortions despite the court’s ruling.
“In flagrant violation of the Supreme Court’s ruling and to pander to abortion extremists, President Biden is trying in vain to maintain his grip on an issue that is no longer federal,” said Chelsea Youman, national legislative counsel for Human Coalition Action, which pursues anti-abortion politics.
But advocates such as Mini Timmaraju, the president of NARAL Pro-Choice America, said the executive order “is an important first step in restoring the rights stripped from millions of Americans by the Supreme Court.”
Read more about the end of Roe v. Wade
- ‘Pro-life generation’: Many young women mourned the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe. For others, it was a moment of triumph and a matter of human rights.
- Changing demographics?: Southern cities have challenged the dominance of coastal supercities, attracting creative young people. Will abortion bans end this?
- The Evolving Battle in New York: Before Roe v. Wade, New York City was a haven for women across the country. Decades later, a new generation of advocates vowed to keep it that way.
Others urged Mr. Biden to take bolder action, even if he risked being thrown out in court. They want him to declare a public health emergency, a move they say would allow the administration to take swift action to expand abortion access, including by ensuring that abortion pills can be prescribed in states where abortion is illegal .
“You have to be willing to take some risks — even if the expectation is that it might not work,” Andrea Miller, president of the National Institute for Reproductive Health, said before the announcement. “Because we are facing an immediate crisis.”
The president’s order directs Mr. Becerra to develop a report “identifying potential actions” to protect access to abortion, but does not say what those actions would be. Mr Becerra will also identify “steps” to ensure pregnant women have access to emergency care, it said, by “considering updates to current guidance on duties specific to emergencies and stabilizing care”.
The order did not specify what those updates would be, but ordered Mr. Becerra to report to Mr. Biden in 30 days.
In an effort to prepare for legal challenges from abortion opponents, the order directs the attorney general and White House counsel to “convene a meeting of private pro bono attorneys, bar associations and public interest organizations” to promote robust legal representation.
In response to concerns that those seeking an abortion could be stalked through personal information in emails, text messages or web searches, the order seeks to protect patient privacy regarding women’s health services data.
He is asking the chairman of the Federal Trade Commission to “consider action” to protect consumer privacy when patients seek information about reproductive care. It also directs Mr. Becerra to “consider action” to protect patient privacy.
The order promises that the administration will “ensure the safety of patients, providers and third parties” who provide or receive abortion services. But it did not say how the agencies will ensure this amid heightened tension following the Supreme Court’s decision.
Administration officials said the president’s hands were largely tied in part because of the Hyde Amendment, a provision in federal law that prevents the government from paying for abortions except in cases of rape or incest or to save the life of the mother.
Mr Becerra said his agency would work with the Department of Justice to ensure women had access to the abortion pill – two drugs taken 24 to 28 hours apart and approved for use in the first weeks of pregnancy – in places where state laws conflict with a ruling by the Food and Drug Administration that has approved the drugs for use and determined that they are safe and effective.
Jen Klein, executive director of the White House Gender Policy Council, which is leading the effort to draft the executive order, said Friday that the details had yet to be worked out by Mr. Becerra and others.
“So what the executive order asked the secretary to do is come back within 30 days with a plan,” she told reporters. “So some of that, as you point out, is stuff that the president has talked about and that the secretary has already started working on. And what this requires is a very thoughtful plan and process.
But the president’s attempt to pass the buck has not gone down well with some of Mr. Biden’s core supporters, who have repeatedly called on the White House to push for new ways to circumvent the court’s ruling and the subsequent restrictions on abortion that the decision automatically imposed. in more than a dozen states with Republican-led state legislatures and Republican governors.
Some activists and lawmakers, for example, have called on the president to establish abortion services on federal land or on Indian territories where state laws prohibiting abortion services may not apply. The White House dismissed these ideas as legally unfeasible and potentially more dangerous to women seeking abortions.
Mr. Biden signed the executive order on Friday before leaving for the weekend at his beach house in Delaware. The fact sheet does not include any of the larger proposals to use federal resources to provide abortion services.
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