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U.S. President Joe Biden signed an executive order to protect access to abortion as he faces mounting criticism from fellow Democrats after the Supreme Court ended his constitutional right to abortion procedures two weeks ago There is a lot of pressure on him to be more forceful on this issue.
The actions he outlines aim to mitigate some of the potential penalties that women seeking abortions may face following the ruling, but they have limited ability to guarantee access nationwide.
Mr. Biden acknowledged the restrictions his office faced, which he said would require a bill in Congress to restore access to abortion in more than a dozen states that imposed severe restrictions or blanket bans after the Supreme Court ruling.
About a dozen states will implement additional restrictions in the coming weeks and months.
“The quickest way to restore Roy is to pass a national law,” Mr Biden said.
“The challenge is to get out and vote. For God’s sake, there’s an election in November. Vote. Vote. Vote. Vote!”
Mr. Biden formally directed the Justice Department and the Departments of Health and Human Services to block efforts to limit a woman’s ability to access federally approved abortion drugs or access clinical abortion services across state lines.
Vice President Kamala Harris, HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra and Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco signed the order in Roosevelt Room.
His executive order also directs agencies to work to educate providers and insurers about how and when they need to share privileged patient information with authorities — to protect women who seek or take advantage of abortion services.
He also asked the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to take steps to protect the privacy of those seeking reproductive health information online and to create an interagency task force to coordinate federal efforts to guarantee access to abortion.
Mr. Biden also directed his staff to call in volunteer attorneys to provide pro bono legal aid to women and providers to help them navigate new state restrictions following the Supreme Court ruling.
The order comes after a June 24 high court ruling that ended abortion rights nationwide and left it to states to decide whether or how to allow the process, as Mr. Biden was hit by the law for not taking more action. Criticism from some members of the party. The urgency of protecting women from abortion.
The decision in the case, known as Dobbs v Jackson Women’s Health Organisation, reversed the court’s landmark 1973 decision in Roe v Wade.
Since the decision, Mr. Biden has emphasized that his ability to protect abortion rights through executive action is limited without Congressional action, stressing that Democrats do not have the votes to do so in this Congress.
“We need two other pro-election senators and a pro-election House to codify Roe,” he said.
“Your vote can make this a reality.”
He predicted a “record number” of women frustrated by the court’s decision and said he expected “millions of men to fight alongside them”.
On Friday, he again sharply criticized the Supreme Court’s reasoning to overturn half a century of constitutional abortion rights.
“Let’s be clear from the outset that this is not a constitutionally driven decision,” Mr Biden said, accusing the majority of the court of “reckless playing with the facts”.
“Ultimately, Congress will have to act to put Roy into federal law,” Biden said during a virtual meeting with Democratic governors last week.
The mandate of the Justice Department and HHS pushes these agencies to fight to protect women in court, but it does not guarantee that the justice system will sided with them against possible prosecutions by states that have moved to ban abortion.
“President Biden has made it clear that the only way to ensure women’s right to choose is for Congress to restore Roe’s protections as federal law,” the White House said.
“Until now, he has been committed to doing everything in his power to defend reproductive rights and protect access to safe and legal abortions.”
Mini Timmaraju, president of Naral Pro-Choice America, called Biden’s order “an important first step in restoring the rights the Supreme Court has wrested from millions of Americans.”
But Lawrence Gostin, director of Georgetown University’s O’Neill Institute for National and Global Health, described Biden’s plan as “impressive.”
“I don’t see anything that affects the lives of ordinary poor women living in red states,” he said.
Mr. Gostin encouraged Mr. Biden to take a stronger approach to ensuring access to medical abortions nationwide, and said Medicaid should consider providing transportation to other states for abortions.
Mr Gostin said “we basically have two Americas”, one where people have access to a full range of health care, and one where “citizens don’t have the same rights to safe and effective treatment as the rest of the country”.
Chiquita Brooks-LaSure, administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, told The Associated Press that the agency is studying how Medicaid would cover abortion travel and a range of other proposals, but acknowledged that “Medicaid coverage for abortion is extremely limited.”
Mr Biden’s move is the latest effort to protect the data privacy of those considering or seeking abortion, as regulators and politicians see the fallout from the Supreme Court ruling.
The court’s decision is expected to make abortion illegal in a dozen states and severely restricted in others.
Privacy experts say this could leave women vulnerable because their personal data could be used to monitor pregnancy and shared with police or sold to vigilantes.
Experts say online searches, location data, text messages and emails, and even period-tracking apps can be used to prosecute people seeking medical care for abortion or miscarriage and those who help them.
Privacy advocates are watching for possible new moves by law enforcement agencies in affected states — for example, to tech companies like Google, Apple, Bing, Facebook’s Messenger and WhatsApp, services like Uber and Lyft, and companies including AT&T. ISPs issued subpoenas, Verizon, T-Mobile and Comcast.
District attorneys may seek warrants for user data from sympathetic judges.
Last month, four Democratic politicians asked the Federal Trade Commission to investigate Apple and Google for allegedly defrauding millions of mobile phone users by allowing the collection and sale of personal data to third parties.
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