President Joe Biden on Friday condemned the Supreme Court’s “extreme” majority that ended the constitutional right to abortion and called on Americans to “vote, vote, vote” in November. Under increasing pressure from fellow Democrats to be stronger in response to the ruling, he signed an executive order to protect access to the procedure.
Biden’s proposed actions are aimed at avoiding some of the potential penalties women seeking abortions may face after the ruling, but his order would not restore access to abortion in more than a dozen states that have enacted strict limits or outright bans. A dozen other states have imposed additional restrictions.
Biden acknowledged the limitations his office faces, saying it would take an act of Congress to restore national access to the way it was before the June 24 decision.
“The fastest path to recovery roe is to pass a national law,” Biden said. “The challenge is to go out and vote. For God’s sake, there are elections in November!”
Biden’s lawsuit issued guidelines for the Departments of Justice, Health and Human Services to limit women’s ability to obtain federally approved abortion medications or travel across state lines to receive clinical abortion services. He was joined by Vice President Kamala Harris, HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra and Assistant Attorney General Lisa Monaco in the Roosevelt Room as he signed the order.
Its executive order also directs agencies to work to educate medical providers and insurers about how and when to share privileged patient information with authorities, in an effort to protect women seeking or receiving abortion services. It also calls on the Federal Trade Commission to take steps to protect the privacy of people seeking reproductive care information online and to create a task force to coordinate federal efforts to protect access to abortion.
Biden is also directing his team to organize volunteer lawyers to provide women with legal and pro bono assistance to help them deal with the state’s new restrictions.
The order came after Biden was criticized by some in his own party for failing to act more urgently to protect women’s access to abortion. The court’s decision in the case of the well-known St. Dobbsv. Jackson Women’s Health Organization He returned the milestone in 1973. Roe vs Wade Manager.
After the ruling, Biden emphasized that his ability to protect abortion rights through executive action is limited without congressional action, noting that Democrats do not have votes in the current Congress to do so.
“We need two additional senators and a pro-choice House to code Roe,” he said. “Your vote can make this happen.”
Biden said for the first time last week that he supports changing Senate rules to allow a measure to restore access to abortion with a simple majority, rather than the usual limit of 60 votes needed to end an obstruction. However, at least two Democratic lawmakers have made it clear that they will not support changing Senate rules.
He predicted that the women would be “declared” frustrated by the court’s decision, saying he expected “millions and millions of men to fight alongside them”.
On Friday, he repeated his harsh criticism of the Supreme Court’s reasoning in overturning a half-century-old constitutional right to abortion.
“Let’s be clear from the start, this was not a constitutional decision,” Biden said. He accused most of the court of “playing lightly with the facts”.
She spoke with emotion about a 10-year-old girl in Ohio who allegedly had to travel to the state to terminate a pregnancy after being raped, noting that some states have enacted abortion bans that do not exempt cases of rape or incest. .
Should a 10 year old be forced to give birth to a violent child? Biden nearly screamed in disbelief. “I couldn’t think of anything more extreme.”
Biden added that in November’s parliamentary elections, “the choice we face as a nation is between the mainstream and the extreme.”
Its guidance to the Justice Department and HHS prompts agencies to fight to protect women in the courts, but the order does not guarantee that the justice system will be on their side against possible prosecution by states that have decided to ban abortion.
Minnie Thimaraju, president of NARAL Pro-Choice America, called Biden’s order “an important first step in restoring the rights the Supreme Court has taken away from millions of Americans.”
But Lawrence Gostin, who directs Georgetown Law’s O’Neill Institute for National and Global Health, called Biden’s plans “compelling.”
“Nothing I’ve seen will affect the lives of ordinary poor women in red states,” she said.
Gostin urged Biden to take a stronger approach to ensuring access to medical abortions across the country and said Medicaid should consider covering transportation to other states to obtain abortions.
Chiquita Brooks-Lasur, administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, recently told the AP that the agency was investigating whether Medicaid could cover abortion trips, but acknowledged that “Medicaid abortion coverage is extremely limited.”
Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America President Marjorie Dennenfelser condemned Biden’s order, saying, “President Biden has once again fallen in love with the extremist abortion lobby, determined to put the full weight of the federal government behind abortion.”
Biden’s move was the latest in a fight to protect the data privacy of those considering or seeking abortions, as regulators and lawmakers weigh the consequences of the Supreme Court’s decision.
Privacy experts say women could be vulnerable if their personal data is used to track pregnancies and shared with police or sold to vigilantes. Online searches, location data, text messages and emails, and even period-tracking apps can all be used to prosecute people seeking abortions or medical care for miscarriages, experts say.
Privacy advocates are keeping an eye on potential new measures from authorities in affected states: subpoenas, for example, to tech companies like Google, Apple, Bing, Facebook’s Messenger and WhatsApp, services like Uber and Lyft, and Internet service providers. , including AT&T. , Verizon, T-Mobile and Comcast. Local prosecutors can ask sympathetic judges to obtain warrants to search for consumer data.
Last month, four Democratic lawmakers asked the FTC to investigate Apple and Google for defrauding millions of cell phone users, including collecting and selling their personal data to third parties.
Source: Hollywood Reporter
Camila Luna is a writer at Gossipify, where she covers the latest movies and television series. With a passion for all things entertainment, Camila brings her unique perspective to her writing and offers readers an inside look at the industry. Camila is a graduate from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) with a degree in English and is also a avid movie watcher.
