Mr. Biden will speak Friday morning “about protecting access to reproductive health services,” the White House said. The actions it is expected to outline are intended to try to mitigate some of the potential penalties women seeking abortions may face after the decision, but are limited in their ability to ensure access to abortion nationwide. Mr. Biden is expected to make the announcement at 11:30 a.m. ET. The President is expected to formalize directives to the Departments of Justice and Health and Human Services to push back against efforts to limit women’s ability to access federally approved abortion drugs or travel across state lines to access abortion clinics. Mr. Biden is also expected to direct the Health and Human Services Department to take steps to ensure that pregnant women and those experiencing pregnancy loss have access to emergency medical care. His executive order would also direct 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 who seek or use abortion services. Mr. Biden will also ask the Federal Trade Commission to take steps to protect the privacy of those seeking information about reproductive care online and to create an interagency task force to coordinate federal efforts to ensure access to abortion . The White House said it would also call on volunteer attorneys to provide women and pro bono providers with legal assistance to help them deal with the new state restrictions following the Supreme Court ruling. The decision, following a June 24 Supreme Court ruling that ended nationwide abortion rights and left states to decide whether or how to allow the procedure, comes as Mr. Biden faced criticism from some in his own party for not acting with greater urgency to protect women’s access to abortion. The decision in the case known as Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization overturned the court’s landmark 1973 Roe v. After the ruling, Mr. Biden stressed that his ability to protect abortion rights through executive action is limited without action by Congress. “Ultimately, Congress will have to act to codify Roe into federal law,” Mr. Biden said last week during a mock meeting with Democratic governors. The assignment to the Justice Department and HHS is expected to prompt the agencies to fight in court to protect women, but it provides no guarantee that the court system will side with them against potential prosecution by states that have moved to ban abortions . “President Biden has made it clear that the only way to ensure a woman’s right to choose is for Congress to restore the protections of Roe as federal law,” the White House said. “Until then, he is committed to doing everything in his power to defend reproductive rights and protect access to safe and legal abortion.”
The battle for abortion
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