On Wednesday, President Joe Biden signed an executive order to ensure abortion access in light of the Supreme Court decision earlier this summer to abolish the constitutional right.
According to the President, the order will allow women to travel outside of their state in order to have abortions. It also ensures that health care providers follow federal law so women don’t delay getting care. The order also advances research and data collection “to assess the effect this reproductive health crisis has on maternal health and other outcomes.”
Biden spoke out about the chaos and uncertainty that has followed the Supreme Court decision. She said, “Women’s health and lives are at risk.”
Before signing the order, Biden stated that emergency medical care was being denied to miscarriage victims, doctors uncertain as to what they can provide for patients, pharmacists unsure if they can fill prescriptions they have filled before, and that there were tragic cases of rape survivors including a 10-year old girl who had to travel to another country for treatment.
This order comes just days after Kansas voters gave abortion-rights advocates a huge victory, defeating a measure which would have allowed the GOP to impose additional restrictions. Biden was proud to celebrate the victory at the White House.
“In a decisive win, voters made clear that they did not want politicians to interfere with women’s fundamental rights. The voters of Kansas sent a strong signal that they will vote this fall to protect and preserve the right and refuse to be taken away by politicians,” Biden stated at the event. And my administration has their back.”
Biden signed the executive orders during the inaugural meeting for the newly established Task Force on Reproductive Healthcare Access. This Task Force is made up of representatives from many departments throughout the federal government. Cabinet members gave the President an update on the actions taken by their agencies to protect reproductive rights.
The order directs Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra “to consider all appropriate actions to ensure that health care providers comply federal non-discrimination law so that women get medically necessary care immediately,” and to take steps to provide technical and legal guidance to health care providers amid the array of state restrictions on abortion care after the Supreme Court’s decision.
CNN reported last month that doctors are having difficulty following byzantine guidance. This is despite the fact that states have been passing increasingly restrictive abortion restrictions across the country. Experts warned of an “immediate chilling effect” on doctors performing miscarriage surgery even though they “believe what they’re doing to be within the law.”
Wednesday’s order directs HHS also to take actions to ensure that women who travel across state lines to seek abortions have access health care services. This includes Medicaid. After Republicans blocked it, the Senate passed a bill that would have allowed women to travel across state lines to obtain abortions.
Senior administration officials claim that this would allow states to cover out-of-state abortions by waiving Medicaid 1115. This waiver allows states to waive certain state-based requirements and help with covering “certain costs.”
According to Tuesday’s official, the executive order directs HHS to increase research on maternal health data in order to “exactly measure the effect that decreasing access to reproductive health services has on women’s health.”
When asked Wednesday by reporters how the executive order of the president on reproductive care does not run afoul of Hyde Amendment which prohibits federal funds being used to perform abortions in the United States, Karine Jean Pierre, White House press secretary, said that the Department of Health and Human Services would “come up the details on how they’re going to work with states” to offer care through Medicaid waivers.
Jean-Pierre explained to CNN’s MJ Lee that Medicaid provides comprehensive healthcare to women with low incomes. This care includes family planning services like contraception, non emergency medical, transportation and support services, such as targeted case management. This allows health care providers to coordinate patients’ care. “And it also covers abortion care in certain situations, as approved by the Hyde Amendment which includes rape, incest, and the life of the mother.”
Jean-Pierre explained to Lee that the executive order “will cover care otherwise part of Medicaid”, including non-emergency travel and other services related to health care.
She said, “The Hyde Amendment, it’s law, and we’re going to, we’re following that law.”
Wednesday’s executive orders is Biden’s second in response to Roe v. Wade being overturned by the Supreme Court. Biden signed last month an executive order that he claimed would protect access to contraceptives and abortion care, patient privacy, and create an interagency taskforce to use “every federal instrument available to ensure access to reproductive health care”.
The President cannot take any action to restore the right to abortion nationwide, and Biden has acknowledged publicly that he does not have the power to expand access to abortion.
