In response to the historic Roe v. Wade decision by the Supreme Court, President Joe Biden signed an executive order on Friday to protect abortion rights.
Standing with Vice President Kamala Harris, Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra, and others at the White House, Biden urged the Justice Department to “do something, to do everything in their power to protect these women seeking to invoke their rights.”
The Supreme Court’s decision, the President scoffed on Friday, was “extreme” and “totally wrongheaded,” adding that what was being seen “wasn’t a constitutional judgment, it was an exercise in raw political power.”
The President claimed that electing more representatives to Congress in November’s midterm elections who will support federal legislation defending access to abortion was the quickest way to restore abortion rights.
In order to reclaim the rights that the court had taken away from them, Biden expressed his “hope and strong belief that women will, in fact, turn out in record numbers.”
Biden said, “Let me be clear, while I wish it had not, this is the fastest route available.
In the wake of the Supreme Court’s decision, the President is powerless to take any action to reinstate the nation’s right to an abortion. Biden has publicly acknowledged that he has few options for increasing access to abortion.
Democrats and advocates, however, have been exerting pressure on the White House to take a stronger stance in favor of codifying abortion access. While he thought Congress should codify Roe, Biden hinted last month that he was thinking about using executive orders. He said to Jimmy Kimmel, “There’s some executive orders I could employ, we believe — we’re looking at that right now.”
According to a government fact sheet provided to CNN, Becerra will be compelled by Friday’s executive order to take action to guarantee access to abortion, including expanded access “to the full range of reproductive health services” and medication abortion that has received FDA approval. The fact sheet says the Affordable Care Act’s coverage of birth control as justification for these services, which also include “emergency contraception and long-acting reversible contraception like intrauterine devices (IUDs)”.
The President has asked HHS to report on how the order’s provisions, which also include actions to broaden outreach and safeguard the medical and digital privacy of patients seeking abortions, have been implemented within the next 30 days.
The order also says an interagency task force between HHS and the White House Gender Policy Council, which includes Attorney General Merrick Garland and which, according to the White House, will offer “technical assistance to states affording legal protection to out-of-state patients as well as providers who offer legal reproductive health care.”
The White House has rejected a number of liberal proposals to safeguard abortion access, including letting abortionists work from federal buildings in states where the procedure is outlawed.
Utilizing federal lands for abortion clinics, according to White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, would have “dangerous ramifications.” The President does not support expanding the Supreme Court, as many progressives have argued, the White House has also reaffirmed.
However, Biden recently stated he would support making an exception to the filibuster — the 60-vote requirement in the Senate needed to pass most legislation — in order to have Congress pass legislation codifying abortion rights and the right to privacy. Previously, the President had been hesitant to back changing the Senate’s rules in order to advance his agenda.
Democratic Senators Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona and Joe Manchin of West Virginia, two lawmakers whose support the President would need, immediately voiced their opposition to changing the filibuster rules, effectively blocking any proposal to do away with them.
