By Enyichukwu Enemanna
US President Joe Biden on Friday signed an Executive Order to ease access to services to terminate pregnancies, saying the Supreme Court decision overturning the right to an abortion was an exercise in “raw political power”.
He further accused the court of working with “extremist elements of the Republican party”.
Biden, a democrat has been under pressure from his own party to take action after the decision of Supreme Court last month overturning Roe v Wade, which upended roughly 50 years of protections for women’s reproductive rights.
The executive order directs the government’s health department to expand access to “medication abortion” – pills prescribed to end pregnancies – and ensure women have access to emergency medical care, family planning services and contraception.
It also mentions protecting doctors, women who travel for abortions and mobile abortion clinics at state borders.
It further promises to have limited impact in practice, since US states can make laws restricting abortion and access to medication.
“What we’re witnessing wasn’t a constitutional judgment, it was an exercise in raw political power,” Biden told reporters at the White House.
He added, “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.”
The White House has remained silent on the idea of reforming the court itself or expanding the nine-member panel.
Instead, Biden laid out how abortion rights could be codified into law by voters if they elected “two additional pro-choice senators, and a pro-choice House” and urged women to turn out in record numbers to vote. He said he would veto any law passed by Republicans to ban abortion rights nationwide.
Jen Klein, Director of the President’s Gender Policy Council at the White House, did not name any specifics when asked what the order would change for women.
“You can’t solve by executive action what the Supreme Court has done,” she said.
Progressive lawmakers and abortion rights groups welcomed the directive. Senator Elizabeth Warren called it “important first steps,” and asked the administration to explore every available option to protect abortion rights.
