WASHINGTON – President Joe Biden will convene key members of his Cabinet on Monday for a discussion abortion rights Roe v. On the 51st anniversary of the Wade decision, According to a White House official.
The president will “hear directly from doctors on the front lines of the disaster” since then. the landmark decision was overturned and details new measures his administration is taking to strengthen access to contraception and medical abortion, as well as to ensure that patients can get emergency medical care.
The meeting will mark the fourth time that his reproductive health care access task force has met since Roe came down nearly a year and a half ago.
The Treasury, Labor and Health and Human Services departments will issue new guidance on Monday to clarify standards and support broader coverage of FDA-approved contraceptives at no cost to millions of women nationwide under the Affordable Care Act, a White House official said.
A White House official said the new effort will be launched by HHS to “educate all patients about their rights and help hospitals meet their obligations under federal law.”
The Office of Personnel Management will also propose new guidelines to strengthen access to contraception for federal employees, retirees and family members, the official said.
Notably, the administration is announcing a “comprehensive plan” to increase awareness of emergency medical care access required under the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTALA).
The Justice Department is currently arguing before the Supreme Court that emergency care “may include abortion care in some circumstances.” The Supreme Court is expected to hear the case by June.
The official said that members of the presidential task force are expected to report on the ongoing implementation of various executive measures to expand access to reproductive health care.
Both the White House and Biden’s re-election campaign have blamed Republicans and criticized the GOP’s more restrictive stance on abortion as a “dangerous, extreme and untouchable agenda.”
“While Americans — from Ohio to Kentucky, Michigan to Kansas to California — have vehemently rejected attempts to curtail reproductive freedom, Republican elected officials continue to push for a national ban and devastating new restrictions across the country,” Biden wrote in a statement Monday. .
Most state bans currently in effect do not include exceptions for rape or consanguinity, and some doctors can face felony charges or even life in prison if they perform the procedure.
As the president meets with his task force on Monday, Vice President Kamala Harris will travel to Wisconsin to kick off a nationwide tour focused on reproductive freedom.
Over the past year, the vice president has visited 16 states and met with 250 lawmakers on reproductive rights, the Biden administration said.
“The president is incredibly grateful to the vice president for helping to lead this work and being his partner in being accountable for this work,” said Jen Klein, director of the White House Gender Policy Council.
Abortion is expected to be a major issue in the 2024 presidential election, largely because of how voters feel about abortion initiatives in the 2022 midterm elections.
Since the Dobbs decision, abortion has appeared on the ballot seven times, with measures in states including Kansas, Michigan, Kentucky, California, Vermont, Montana and Ohio. After all, in both traditionally red and blue states, a Biden campaign memo said last week that people “voted to protect their rights.”
Voters in several key battleground states, including Arizona, Georgia, Florida, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina and Wisconsin, will go to the polls again in November over abortion.
The Biden administration plans to make abortion ballot initiatives a “major part” of its strategy over the next 10 months, Klein said, and plans to involve hundreds of state leaders who are deeply involved in current legislative battles on the issue.
“The administration is committed to ensuring women have the freedom to make their own reproductive health decisions,” she said.
The president, first lady, vice president and second gentleman will lead the first joint campaign rally of the era in northern Virginia on Tuesday to highlight the importance of abortion access.
The administration has repeatedly urged Congress to pass legislation that would restore Roe-era protections, but even with Democrats controlling both the House and Senate, that has been impossible, so it’s unlikely to happen anytime soon.