Under pressure, president acts on abortion
Executive order is designed to ensure access to abortion medication, contraception
WASHINGTON — Under pressure to do more to respond to the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, President Joe Biden issued an executive order Friday designed to ensure access to abortion medication and emergency contraception while preparing for legal fights to come.
But the order is vague about how the president hopes to accomplish those goals, leaving the details largely to Xavier Becerra, his secretary of health and human services, who has said the administration has “no magic bullet” that can restore access to abortion.
And Biden’s order stops far short of demands from abortion rights advocates, who have criticized him for failing to move quickly to take action after the court’s decision two weeks ago.
Speaking to reporters at the White House before signing the document, Biden condemned the court’s decision as “terrible, extreme and, I think, so totally wrongheaded.” The order would help protect some access to reproductive services, he said, but the only real way to protect access was to elect more lawmakers who support those services.
“For God’s sake, there’s an election in November. Vote. Vote. Vote. Vote,” the president said, noting that the court’s majority in the decision “practically dares” women to assert their political power to put in place laws that restore abortion rights. “Consider the challenge accepted, court.”
In his remarks, Biden decried news of a 10-year-old girl in Ohio who became pregnant after being raped and was forced to leave her state to get an abortion. Still, he all but acknowledged his powerlessness, saying that “the fastest route available” to restoring a right to abortion is at the ballot box.
Opponents of abortion rights criticized the president’s order, accusing the administration of trying to find ways to increase abortions despite the court’s ruling.
“In obvious defiance of the Supreme Court’s decision and to surrender to abortion extremists, President Biden is futilely attempting to maintain his grip on an issue that is no longer a federal one,” said Chelsey Youman, national legislative adviser for Human Coalition Action, which pursues anti-abortion policies.
But advocates, such as Mini Timmaraju, president of NARAL Pro-Choice America, said the executive order “is an important first step in restoring the rights taken from millions of Americans by the Supreme Court.”
Others have urged Biden to take bolder action, even if he risks being overturned in court. They want him to declare a public health emergency, a move that they say would enable the administration to move quickly to expand access to abortion, including by ensuring that abortion pills can be prescribed in states where abortion is illegal.
“You need to be willing to take some risks — even if the anticipation is it might not work,” Andrea Miller, president of the National Institute for Reproductive Health, said before the announcement. “Because we are facing an immediate crisis.”
The president’s order directs Becerra to develop a report “identifying potential actions” to protect access to abortion but does not say what those actions will be. Becerra will also identify “steps” to ensure that pregnant women have access to emergency care, it says, by “considering updates to current guidance on obligations specific to emergency conditions and stabilizing care.”
The order does not specify what those updates will be but directs Becerra to report back to Biden in 30 days.
The order pledges that the administration will “ensure the safety of patients, providers and third parties” who are delivering or receiving abortion services.