US: Biden signs executive order on abortion
July 8, 2022
US President Joe Biden signed an executive order to protect access to abortion on Friday, in a ceremony that was televised. The president had faced mounting pressure to do more for reproductive rights after the Supreme Court ended a federal right to seek abortion two weeks ago.
During a speech ahead of signing the order, Biden said that "the practice of medicine should not be frozen in the 19th century," and accused the conservative justices on the court of having a "deep-seated antipathy towards Roe [v. Wade] and the right to privacy," as well as towards womens' rights.
"We cannot allow an out of control Supreme Court working in conjunction with extremist elements of the Republican Party to take away freedoms and our personal autonomy," he added.
The actions in the order are intended to try to mitigate some new penalities that Republican-controlled states are seeking to place on women who procure abortions. For example, some states are seeking to criminalize the act of crossing state lines in order to terminate a pregnancy.
The Biden administration also wants to protect citizens who look up information about abortion online, and will direct the Department of Health and Human Services to ensure women have access to emergency medical care, family planning services, and contraception, including intrauterine devices (IUDs).
However, the executive order is likely to be limited in its ability to enshrine abortion access nationwide as Biden has insisted that doing so must fall to Congress.
The White House said it will also convene volunteer lawyers to provide women and clinics with pro bono legal assistance to help them navigate new state restrictions after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, making abortion illegal in a dozen states and severely restricted in many others.
Risks to health and privacy after abortion ruling
The conservative court's decision to overturn decades-long legal precedent, experts warn, is not only going to drive pregnant people to seek out unsafe abortions. It has also throw into jeopardy several procedures that doctors may advise when a fetus cannot survive until full-term or if the woman's life is in jeopardy, as well as certain parts of IVF treatments.
Privacy experts are also concerned that online searches, location data, text messages and emails, and even apps that track periods could be used to prosecute people who seek an abortion, or medical care for a miscarriage, as well as those who assist them.
es/jcg (AP, Reuters)