President Biden addresses the nation on Friday after the US Supreme Court overturned decision Roe v. Wade.
Mandel Ngan / AFP via Getty Images
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Mandel Ngan / AFP via Getty Images
President Biden addresses the nation on Friday after the US Supreme Court overturned decision Roe v. Wade.
Mandel Ngan / AFP via Getty Images
By decision of the Supreme Court of the United States overturned Roe v. Wade, Some Senate Democrats are pushing President Biden to take “immediate action” to protect abortion rights.
In one letter to Biden on Saturday night, a group of 34 senators described Dobbs sues Jackson Women’s Health Organization The decision was seen as “an unprecedented attack on women and the result of decades of activism by Republican extremists.”
Senators conceded Biden’s comment in response to Friday’s decision, which he called a “sad day for the court and for the country.” They called on the president to take “bold action” and “use the full force of the federal government to protect access to abortion in the United States.”
“You have the strength to resist and lead a national response to this devastating decision,” the letter read.
In an interview with NPR on Saturday, Washington Senator Patty Murray said she asked the administration to have a government-wide plan on “the first day,” shortly after the Supreme Court issued the decision. mine.
“We’re on day two,” Murray said. “We can’t wait a few days or weeks to act because people today who need this kind of care, are sitting at home scared to death, worried about their own health, worried about their economic situation. themselves, wondering what the hell they could do. Do. Every day that passes is too much of a day.”
After a leaked draft On comments published in early May, Murray and Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren called on Biden to take executive action and adopt a “whole government” approach to protecting access to abortion. .
They asked the government to do it some specific steps which they believe is within Biden’s purview. Some of those include looking for ways federal agencies could expand access to medical abortion; help provide travel documents and other logistical support to people traveling from places where abortion is not available; and use federal civil rights laws to protect private health and location data — especially from states where patients who want abortions can be prosecuted.
“We ask them to look at every toolbox to determine what they can do to make sure people can access the care they need,” Murray told NPR.
The president’s ability to intervene may be limited in part by the Hyde Amendment, a longstanding ban on federal funding for most abortions. Biden support do it with Hydebut was unable to get Congress involved.
Biden’s attorney general, Merrick Garland, said Friday that cannot be banned the abortion pill mifepristone. But Republican-controlled legislatures worked to restricted access medical abortion, including the passage of legislation that prohibits the use of telehealth to prescribe drugs.
