Biden issues abortion access executive order, calling for further study

The order is short on specifics, directing federal officials to consider how to assist people who travel out of state to to abort.

WASHINGTON - Since even before the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, Democrats pressured President Biden to take action to protect abortion rights.

And he sought ways to do so. to do, convening a task force to monitor the state's crackdown on the procedure, allowing legal action against states that it believes go too far, and giving guidance to pharmacists and other healthcare providers to strengthen existing laws on privacy and access to medicine.

Then on Wednesday, after weeks of study by his administration, Mr. Biden took new measures by signing an executive order to protect abortion rights - consider what it could do to protect abortion rights.

The order directed the Secretary of Health and Human Services to "consider actions" to protect access to abortion and other health services, including for women crossing state lines, to "consider all appropriate actions" to inform uncertain physicians of their legal obligations and to "assess the adequacy" of data collection. abortion data.

Given the unilateral efforts of presidential power, this was neither particularly noteworthy nor what proponents of abortion rights have been Hope that. But executive orders ordering members of an administration to study a particular issue have become common in recent years as a way for business leaders to project the image of bold action even in areas where their power may be limited.

"I pledge to the American people to do everything in our power to protect access to health care, including the right to choose that women had under Roe v. Wade, which was ripped off by this extreme court,” Biden said in comments streamed via video from the White House residence, where he is self-isolating with Covid-19.

The order came after Kansas voters on Tuesday overwhelmingly rejected an amendment that would have removed the right to abortion from the Kansas constitution. Also on Tuesday, the Biden administration sued Idaho over its tough new law, which the Biden administration says he Department of Justice, would block ER doctors from performing necessary abortions on women facing medical emergencies. hope in the Kansas referendum, seeing it as a potential harbinger of voter backlash against champions of what he called "extreme MAGA ideology" seeking to ban abortion.

"They have no idea the power of American women," Biden said. "Last night in Kansas they found out."

But it was an implicit acknowledgment that even a president has limited power to protect the right to abortion unless voters elect more supporters. "Ultimately, Congress must codify Roe's protections as federal law," he said. "And if Congress does not act, the people of this country must elect senators and representatives who will restore Roe and protect the rights to privacy, liberty and equality."

Regarding Mr. Biden's executive order, White House officials could not explain why he should issue a written directive to his own health secretary to study a problem when he could presumably just pick up a phone and tell her to do it. And in fact, Health Secretary Xavier Becerra, who joined Mr. Biden for his videoconference on Wednesday, has already considered these issues without waiting for a piece of paper from the Oval Office.

But such mostly symbolic executive orders can sometimes lead to real action down the road if a cabinet department or agency comes back with concrete ideas on how to enact new policy and a president then...