In Washington President Joe Biden issued a passionate appeal for people who were angered by the decision to “vote, vote, vote” in November while denouncing the “extreme” Supreme Court majority that ended a constitutional right to abortion on Friday. He signed an executive order to try to protect access to the procedure as pressure from fellow Democrats to respond more forcefully to the decision grew.
The steps Biden suggested are meant to prevent some of the punishments that women seeking abortions might encounter as a result of the decision, but his directive cannot reopen access to abortion in the more than a dozen states where severe restrictions or outright bans have taken effect. There will be new restrictions in about a dozen more states.
Biden acknowledged the constraints his office faced, stating that regaining nationwide access to the state it was in prior to the June 24 decision would necessitate a congressional act.
The passage of a federal law, according to Biden, is the quickest way to restore Roe. “The task is to cast your ballot. For the love of God, there will be elections in November!
By taking this action, Biden gave the Justice and Health and Human Services departments formal orders to oppose any attempts to restrict women’s access to clinical abortion services or to medications that have received federal approval. Vice President Kamala Harris, HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra, and Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco were present when he signed the order in the Roosevelt Room.
In an effort to protect women who seek or receive abortion services, his executive order also instructs agencies to work to educate healthcare professionals and insurers about how and when they are required to share privileged patient information with law enforcement. Additionally, he is requesting that the Federal Trade Commission create a task force to coordinate federal efforts to protect access to abortion and take action to protect the privacy of those looking for information about reproductive care online.
In order to help women and providers navigate the new state restrictions, Biden is also instructing his staff to round up volunteer attorneys.
The decision was made at a time when Biden has come under fire from some members of his own party for not acting more quickly to defend women’s access to abortion. The 1973 Roe v. Wade decision was overturned by the court’s ruling in the case known as Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization.
Since the ruling, Biden has emphasized that his ability to defend abortion rights through executive action is constrained in the absence of congressional action and that Democrats do not currently hold the current number of seats in Congress to do so.
To codify Roe, he said, “we need a pro-choice house and two more pro-choice senators.” Your vote could make that happen.
To end a filibuster, the Senate typically needs 60 votes, but last week, Biden for the first time stated his support for changing the rules to allow a measure to restore nationwide access to abortion to pass by a simple majority. At least two Democratic lawmakers have, however, made it clear that they will oppose any changes to the Senate’s rules.
In response to the court’s decision, he predicted that women would protest in “record numbers,” and he added that “millions and millions of men will be taking up the fight beside them.”
On Friday, he reiterated his harsh criticism of the Supreme Court’s justification for overturning the constitutional right to abortion that had been in place for 50 years.
Let’s get one thing straight right away: The Constitution was not the driving force behind this decision, Biden said. He charged that the majority of the court had “played fast and loose with the facts.”
He mentioned the story of the 10-year-old Ohio girl who was reportedly forced to leave the state to have a pregnancy terminated after being raped and noted that some states have passed abortion bans without making an exception for rape or incest cases.
Biden almost shouted in disbelief, “A 10-year-old should be made to give birth to a rapist’s child!” There is nothing more extreme, in my opinion.
The choice that the country must make in the November congressional elections is between the mainstream and the extreme, said Biden.
His directives to the Justice Department and HHS pressure the organizations to litigate to defend women, but the order makes no promises that the legal system will side with them in the event that they are prosecuted by states that have moved to outlaw abortion.
Pro-choice organization NARAL “A important first step in restoring the rights taken from millions of Americans by the Supreme Court,” President Mini Timmaraju said of Biden’s order.
However, Lawrence Gostin, director of Georgetown Law’s O’Neill Institute for National and Global Health, called Biden’s proposals “underwhelming.”
Nothing that I observed would have an impact on the lives of typical poor women living in red states, he claimed.
Gostin urged Biden to be more adamant about ensuring that medication abortion is available throughout the nation and suggested that Medicaid look into paying for travel expenses to other states for the purpose of getting abortions.
Despite admitting that “Medicaid’s coverage of abortion is extremely limited,” Chiquita Brooks-LaSure, administrator of the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, told the Associated Press that the agency was looking into how Medicaid could cover travel for abortions.
“President Biden has once again caved to the extreme abortion lobby, determined to put the full weight of the federal government behind promoting abortion,” said Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America.
Biden’s action was the most recent attempt to safeguard the privacy of those who are considering or seeking an abortion as regulators and lawmakers deal with the fallout from the Supreme Court decision.
Women may be at risk, according to privacy experts, if their personal information is used to monitor pregnancies, shared with police, or sold to vigilantes. According to experts, people who seek abortions or medical treatment for miscarriages, as well as those who support them, could be prosecuted. This includes using online searches, location data, text messages, emails, and even apps that track periods.
Privacy advocates are keeping an eye out for potential new actions by law enforcement agencies in the impacted states, such as serving subpoenas on internet service providers like AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile, and Comcast as well as tech companies like Google, Apple, Bing, Facebook’s Messenger, and WhatsApp. Local prosecutors may request search warrants for user data before sympathetic judges.
Four Democratic lawmakers requested last month that the FTC look into claims that Apple and Google misled millions of mobile phone users by enabling the collection and sale of their personal information to outside parties.
