Washington: US President Joe Biden said the Supreme Court decision overturning the right to an abortion was an exercise in “raw political power” and signed an executive order on Friday to help protect access to services to terminate pregnancies.
Biden, a Democrat, has been under pressure from his own party to take action after the landmark decision last month to overturn Roe v Wade, which upended roughly 50 years of protections for women’s reproductive rights.
The executive order pledges to ensure the safety of abortion patients and providers, including setting up mobile clinics near the borders of states restricting abortion access. It also seeks to convene private, pro bono lawyers to offer support to people crossing state lines to get an abortion.
Another part of the order directs the secretary of Health and Human Services to issue a report in the next 30 days outlining additional actions to protect medication abortion, expand access to emergency contraception and IUDs, and increase public education around reproductive rights. Biden spoke passionately about the case of a 10-year-old Ohio girl who was forced to leave the state to get an abortion after being impregnated during rape.”Imagine being that little girl,” Biden said, “A 10-year-old girl should be forced to give birth to a rapist’s child? I can’t think of anything more extreme.”
At least nine states have banned abortion so far including Alabama, Arkansas, Mississippi, Missouri, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Texas, West Virginia and Wisconsin. A dozen more states are expected to prohibit or restrict the procedure in the coming weeks. “I’m asking the Justice Department that, much like they did in the Civil Rights era, to do everything in their power to protect these women seeking to invoke their rights,” Biden said at the White House on Friday.
Sixty votes are needed in the Senate to pass most legislation because of the filibuster. Changing the rules would allow senators to write Roe vs Wade into law with a simple majority. But getting rid of the filibuster is up to the Senate, and right now there aren’t enough votes to make that happen.
