Jan. 22 (UPI) — President Joe Biden will meet Monday with a task force of doctors and cabinet officials to announce new federal actions to protect access to reproductive care on the 51st anniversary of the ruling in Roe vs. Wade.
The meeting comes the same day that Vice President Kamala Harris kicks off a nationwide tour in the battleground of Wisconsin to promote abortion rights as Democrats seek to drill down on a key issue leading up to the November election.
Biden issued a statement on Monday, vowing to protect abortion rights amid increasing health restrictions that have emerged in GOP-led states after the Supreme Court overturned the landmark ruling in June 2022, abolishing the constitutional right to abortion.
“Because of Republican elected officials, women’s health and lives are at risk,” Biden wrote. “In states across the country, women are being turned away from emergency rooms, forced to go to court to seek permission for the medical attention they need, and made to travel hundreds of miles for health care.”
Biden emphasized “a woman’s constitutional right to make deeply personal decisions with her doctor — free from the interference of politicians,” while noting that “tens of millions of women now live in states with extreme and dangerous abortion bans.”
Biden’s fourth meeting with the Task Force on Reproductive Healthcare Access will include announcements from cabinet officials as well as testimony from physicians on the frontlines of the abortion rights battle across the nation, the White House said in a statement.
The task force will give a progress report on actions taken since Biden signed several executive orders to protect reproductive health care.
The panel will also announce new efforts to strengthen access to women’s contraception under a prescription.
The heads of the Treasury, Labor, and Health and Human Services departments are issuing new guidance on a broad range of FDA-approved contraceptives at no cost under the Affordable Care Act, benefitting millions of women nationwide, the White House said.
The HHS is reaching out to private health insurers through a letter, reminding them about their responsibility to provide coverage for affordable contraception under federal rules.
Part of the effort includes ensuring women are educated about their treatment options if they ever experience a miscarriage or other pregnancy-related emergencies.
The various cabinet departments will update Biden on the ongoing progress in implementing a presidential memorandum he signed one year ago to support patients, providers, and pharmacies who wish to legally access, prescribe, or provide medication abortion.
At the time, Biden’s order focused on facilitating access to legal abortion medications, such as mifepristone, which is currently under scrutiny in a Supreme Court case challenging the FDA’s authority to oversee the approval and regulation of various prescription medicines.
The White House said it has forged hundreds of partnerships over the past year with state -level representatives who’ve vowed to oppose anti-abortion legislative efforts in 20 states.
New actions also seek to support reproductive healthcare for the nation’s active troops and veterans.
As part of the effort, the Department of Justice created a Reproductive Rights Task Force to monitor and evaluate state and local actions that threaten to infringe on federal protections that remain in place despite Roe being struck down.
The actions will seek to support women’s ability to travel to abortion-friendly states for necessary care after the Justice Department challenged Alabama’s threats to prosecute individuals assisting women in seeking lawful out-of-state abortions.
The DOJ emphasized that these threats infringe on the constitutional right to travel, asserting that states cannot punish third parties for helping women exercise that right.
The meeting comes the same day that Vice President Kamala Harris kicks off a nationwide tour in the battleground of Wisconsin to promote abortion rights as Democrats seek to drill down on a key issue leading up to the November election.
She will host a number of public events that aim to share the stories of real women who’ve been personally affected by the latest abortion bans, while also highlighting efforts by the Biden administration to protect access to care.
The high court decision that overturned Roe vs. Wade has energized Democrats, while the abortion issue led to increased voter turnout during the 2022 mid-term elections that resulted in major Democratic victories, as well as the passage of pro-abortion measures in Kansas and Ohio.
