Biden team strains to flex muscles in abortion fight
President Joe Biden’s top health official said Tuesday that “every option is on the table” when it comes to helping women access abortion in the wake of the Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade.
But the gap between outrage over the ruling and the administration’s response appeared as wide as ever. Despite Democrats and activists pushing for swift and sweeping policies, Health and Human Services Xavier Becerra conceded that there’s “no magic bullet” to ensure abortion access.
For now, he’s pledging that “if there is something we can do, we will find it and we will do it at HHS.”
He said the administration would work to ensure that medication abortions remain available, that patient privacy is preserved and family planning care like emergency contraceptives is protected.
Biden has not elaborated on his plans for abortion since the ruling, which he called “a sad day for the court and the country.” On the next day, he left for a previously scheduled trip to international summits in Europe, and he’s not back until Thursday.
A White House official, who declined to be identified publicly speaking about strategy, said the administration was going to make fighting for abortion a priority.
“Throughout the week we’re going to be making a strong case demonstrating the contrast between the president — who believes we should defend the right of all Americans to make their own decisions — and the radical policies proposed by Republican officials, which include Congress instituting a nationwide abortion ban, statewide abortion bans with no exceptions for rape or incest, and criminalizing women who have an abortion and the physicians who perform them,” the official said.
Biden has tried to limit expectations for what he can accomplish on his own.
“The only way we can secure a woman’s right to choose and the balance that existed is for Congress to restore the protections of Roe v. Wade as federal law,” he said after the court ruling. “No executive action from the president can do that.”
However, there’s little chance that a sharply divided Senate would take such a step, meaning abortion legislation would encounter the same roadblock that has stopped so many of Biden’s proposals.
Despite the challenges, the administration’s response has still proved disappointing to some.
“The White House should have been better prepared,” said Lawrence Gostin, who runs the O’Neill Institute for National and Global Health at Georgetown Law. “And that just didn’t happen.”
Becerra indicated that abortion pills would be a key avenue for the administration’s efforts.