Chris Lange, FISM News
President Joe Biden will take executive action today to protect abortion access in the country amid increasing pressure from Democrats to take more a more forceful approach in the wake of the Supreme Court’s June 24 decision to overturn Roe v. Wade.
Sources familiar with the matter told The Associated Press that the president will speak this morning “on protecting access to reproductive health care services.” Biden is expected to instruct the Justice Department and Health and Human Services to push back on state-imposed restrictions on access to abortion drugs and limitations on crossing state lines to have abortions.
Biden’s executive order will also direct agencies to educate medical providers and insurers about how and when they are required to share privileged patient information with authorities. He will also ask the Federal Trade Commission to take steps to protect the privacy of those seeking information about abortion providers online.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and other Democratic lawmakers have been pushing for a crackdown on pregnancy help centers with a measure that seeks to exploit the non-profit status of pro-life groups whereby they are not bound by federal health data privacy laws. They also want pregnancy help center ads to be blocked from online searches for abortion services.
The president last week said that his ability to protect abortion access in states where the procedure is restricted or banned altogether is limited and that it is up to Congress to codify abortion rights.
“Ultimately, Congress is going to have to act to codify Roe into federal law,” he said at the time. The Senate likely would not have enough votes to do so, however, which is why Democrats have been ramping up pressure on Biden to take executive action.
The White House said Vice President Kamala Harris will attend the president’s remarks Friday morning before meeting with state legislative leaders from Florida, Indiana, Montana, Nebraska, and South Dakota who are “fighting on the frontlines to protect reproductive rights.”
“If extremist governors try to block a woman from traveling from a state that prohibits her from seeking the medical help she needs to a state that provides that care, we will act to protect her bedrock rights,” Biden tweeted Thursday. Hours later, he added “If states try to block a woman from getting medication the FDA has already approved and that has been available for more than twenty years, we will act to protect that woman’s right to that medication.”