Biden Signs Executive Order Aimed at Making Sure Women Can Get Abortions

President Joe Biden speaks before signing an executive order aimed at ensuring access to abortion pills, at the White House in Washington on July 8, 2022. (Samuel Corum/AFP via Getty Images)

President Joe Biden on July 8 signed an executive order aimed at ensuring women can get abortions.

Biden directed the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to expand access to various methods of abortion, including a Food and Drug Administration-approved pill called Mifeprex that can be taken to kill a fetus up to the 10th week of pregnancy. The agency will also make sure pregnant women have access to emergency medical care and step up efforts to educate the public on abortion access.

Biden also directed his administration to review potential actions to protect the privacy of Americans who seek information about abortion and women who obtain abortions.

“There’s an increasing concern that extremist governors and others will try to get that data off of your phone, which is out there in the ether, to find what you’re seeking, where you’re going, and what you’re doing in regard to your health care,” Biden said in prepared remarks at the White House in Washington before signing the order.

In addition, the White House announced that Attorney General Merrick Garland, a Biden appointee, and White House lawyers will convene a group of attorneys and outside groups to encourage representation of women seeking abortions, including representing women who travel to another state to get the procedure done.

Order Doesn’t Protect Against Dangers of Pill: Expert

Dr. James Studnicki, vice president of data analytics at the pro-life Charlotte Lozier Institute, told The Epoch Times via email that the safety of abortion pills is “greatly exaggerated,” pointing to a study of emergency rooms and data from Europe and California.

“The increasing dominance of chemical abortion and its disproportionate contribution to emergency room morbidity is a serious public health threat, and today’s Executive Order does nothing to address or mitigate the very real dangers to women, which are proven by real-world data,” Studnicki added.

The FDA has been under pressure to rescind the approval of Mifeprex but has taken no action as of yet.

Danco Laboratories, which manufactures the pill, told news outlets earlier this year that it has a “stable and plentiful” supply of the drug.

More than half of the abortions in 2020 were done through the pill, according to the pro-abortion Guttmacher Institute.

Mifeprex is still being sent to women in all 50 states, despite abortion bans recently being enacted in some.

Senate Health Committee Chairwoman Patty Murray (D-Wash.) was among others praising the order.

“These are good, important steps: but this fight is far from over,“ she said in a statement. ”As we continue living through a post-Roe health care crisis, I urge the President to continue doing everything he can to fight back and I’ll continue the fight here in Congress.”

Supreme Court Ruling

Biden’s order follows the Supreme Court’s striking down of Roe v. Wade, the 1973 ruling that had declared access to abortion a constitutional right. A majority of the court in June said the ruling had no basis in American law or the Constitution.

Following the recent ruling, a number of state abortion bans took effect, while others are the subject of court battles.

Biden decried the restrictions and urged people to vote in the upcoming midterms so that Congress can enact a law that replaces Roe v. Wade, which he would sign.

“We need two additional pro-choice senators and a pro-choice house to codify Roe in law,” Biden said.

Democrats hold slim majorities in both the Senate and the House of Representatives, but some Democrats are pro-life, as are many Republicans. The abortion law passed by the House, which would have greatly expanded on Roe in terms of abortion access, was blocked by Republicans and Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W. Va.) in March.

Bills in the Senate typically require 60 votes, meaning more than two more pro-abortion senators would be required to pass the legislation or a similar bill.