President Joe Biden signs order to bolster abortion rights

The move by the US president marks the first attempt by the White House to act following the Supreme Court’s decision to overrule Roe v Wade.

US President Joe Biden speaks before signing an executive order protecting access to reproductive health care services. Picture: Samuel Corum / AFP

US President Joe Biden signed an executive order yesterday (Friday) to bolster some abortion rights in the US, marking the White House’s first attempt to challenge the Supreme Court’s decision to overrule Roe v Wade.

Biden’s move will not restore a woman’s right to a termination in those states where it has been made illegal or almost impossible since the court’s decision. Instead it will ring-fence access to abortion medication, making abortion pills as “widely accessible as possible”.

There will also be greater access to emergency contraception and attempts to protect online data so that it cannot be used to prosecute women who seek abortions in different states.

The order will “fight digital surveillance related to reproductive health care services”, the White House said. Republican politicians in some states are seeking to prevent women travelling to other states where abortion is legal and to make it unlawful to help a woman to do so.

The president has also asked the chairwoman of the federal trade commission to protect consumers’ privacy when they search for information about reproductive health services.

Some technology companies have already said that they will delete users’ location data when it shows they have visited an abortion clinic.

There will also be protection for mobile clinics that are deployed to the borders of states that have banned abortion, as well as provisions to boost access to lawyers and pro bono legal services for those offering termination services.

“Such representation could include protecting the right to travel out of state to seek medical care,” according to the White House statement.

The White House has come under pressure from within the Democratic Party to act following the Supreme Court’s decision. Biden does not have the power to overrule the court’s majority verdict, but he could send a Bill to Congress to pass and introduce federal abortion rights.

The Democrats’ thin majority in the Senate means any Bill has little hope of passing, but Democrats in Congress have argued that the White House could take other action, including increasing the number of judges on the bench of the Supreme Court to dilute the conservatives’ majority, or build abortion clinics on federal land in states where abortion has been made illegal.

The Times