Under mounting pressure from his fellow Democrats to be more forceful in response to the ruling, he signed an executive order to try to protect access to the process. The actions Biden outlined are intended to eliminate some potential penalties women seeking abortions may face after the ruling, but his order cannot restore access to abortion in the more than a dozen states where strict limits or total bans. About a dozen more states are set to impose additional restrictions. Biden acknowledged the limitations his office faces, saying it would require an act of Congress to restore nationwide access to what it was before the June 24 decision. “The fastest way to restore Roe is to pass a national law,” Biden said. “The challenge is to get out and vote. For God’s sake, there’s an election in November!” Catalina Leona and Terri Chen, staff members at Women’s Reproductive Services of Houston, which no longer provides abortion care, watch a live stream of Biden making comments before signing the executive order. (Evelyn Hockstein/Reuters)
The Order aims to ensure access to and information on abortion pills
Biden’s action formalized directives to the Departments of Justice and Health and Human Services to reverse efforts to limit women’s ability to access federally approved abortion drugs or travel across state lines to access clinical abortion services. He was joined by Vice President Kamala Harris, Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra and Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco in the Roosevelt Room as he signed the order. His executive order also directs the agencies to work to educate medical providers and insurers about how and when they are required to share privileged patient information with authorities — an effort to protect women seeking or receiving abortion services. Abortion rights activists set up an educational booth about abortion pills as they protest outside the Supreme Court in Washington on July 4. (Jose Luis Magana/The Associated Press) It also calls on the Federal Trade Commission to take steps to protect the privacy of those seeking information about reproductive care online and to create a task force to coordinate federal efforts to ensure access to abortion. Biden is also directing his staff to line up volunteer attorneys to provide women and caregivers with free legal aid to help them deal with the new state restrictions.
There is not enough support in the House, the Senate
The order comes as Biden faced criticism from some in his own party for not acting with more urgency to protect women’s access to abortion. The court’s decision in the case known as Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization overturned the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade. After the decision, Biden stressed that his ability to protect abortion rights through executive action is limited without congressional action, and stressed that Democrats do not have the votes in the current Congress to do so. “We need two more pro-choice senators and a pro-choice House to codify Roe,” he said. “Your vote can make it happen.” Anti-abortion protesters celebrate outside the United States Supreme Court after the ruling. (Michael A. McCoy/Reuters) Biden first announced last week his support for changing Senate rules to allow a measure to restore nationwide access to abortion to pass with a simple majority rather than the usual 60-vote threshold required. to terminate an abortion. However, at least two Democratic lawmakers have made it clear they will not support changing the Senate rules. He predicted women would turn out in “record numbers” disappointed by the court’s decision and said he expected “millions and millions of men to take up the fight alongside them”. WATCHES | Biden urged Americans who want to protect abortion rights to vote in the November midterm elections:
Biden signs executive order to ensure access to abortion, contraception
US President Joe Biden has signed an executive order to help ensure access to abortion and contraception in light of the US Supreme Court’s reversal of the landmark Roe v. Wade decision. Biden is urging Americans to elect a Congress that will pass new federal pro-choice laws.
Court accused of ‘fast and loose with facts’
On Friday, he repeated his sharp criticism of the Supreme Court’s reasoning for striking down a half-century-old constitutional right to abortion. “Let’s be clear from the start: this was not a decision driven by the Constitution,” Biden said. He accused the majority of the court of “playing fast and loose with the facts.” He spoke with emotion about a 10-year-old Ohio girl who was reportedly forced to travel out of state to terminate a pregnancy after rape, noting that some states have enacted abortion bans that have no exceptions for rape or incest. “Should a 10-year-old be forced to give birth to a rapist’s child?” an incredulous Biden almost shouted. “I can’t think of anything more extreme.” “This was not a decision driven by the Constitution,” Biden said of overturning Roe. (Kevin Lamarck/Reuters) Biden said in November’s congressional elections: “The choice we face as a nation is between the mainstream or the extreme.” His directives to the Justice Department and the Health and Human Services are prompting the agencies to fight in court to protect women, but the order offers no guarantee that the court system will side with them against potential prosecution by states that have moved to ban abortion. NARAL Pro-Choice America President Mini Timmaraju called Biden’s order “an important first step in restoring the rights taken from millions of Americans by the Supreme Court.” However, Lawrence Gostin, who directs the O’Neill Institute for National and Global Health at Georgetown Law, described Biden’s plans as “mandatory.” “I didn’t see anything that affected the lives of ordinary poor women living in red states,” she said. Gostin encouraged Biden to take a more proactive approach to ensuring access to medication abortion across the country and said Medicaid should consider covering transportation to other states for abortion purposes.
data privacy concerns
Chiquita Brooks-LaSure, the administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, recently told the AP that the agency was looking into whether Medicaid could cover abortion travel, but acknowledged that “Medicaid coverage for abortion is extremely limited.” Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America President Marjorie Dannenfelser condemned Biden’s order, saying, “President Biden has once again caved in to the extreme abortion lobby, determined to put the full weight of the federal government behind the promotion of abortions”. Biden’s move was the latest battle to protect the privacy of the data of those considering or seeking abortions, as regulators and lawmakers reckon with the aftermath of the Supreme Court decision. Abortion rights activists worry that data collected from period-tracking apps could be used to prosecute women who access abortions in states that have banned or restricted them. (Isabel Infantes/Reuters) Privacy experts say women could be vulnerable if their personal data is used to monitor pregnancies and shared with police or sold to vigilantes. Internet searches, location data, text messages and emails, and even period-tracking apps could be used to prosecute people seeking abortions — or medical treatment for abortion — as well as those who help them, experts say. Privacy advocates are watching for possible new moves by law enforcement agencies in the affected states — serving subpoenas, for example, to tech companies like Google, Apple, Bing, Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp, services like Uber and Lyft and internet service providers including AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile and Comcast. Local prosecutors may go before sympathetic judges to obtain search warrants for user data. Last month, four Democratic lawmakers asked the FTC to investigate Apple and Google for allegedly defrauding millions of cellphone users by allowing their personal data to be collected and sold to third parties.
