Biden is expected to sign the executive order during the inaugural meeting of the administration’s recently created Task Force on Access to Reproductive Health Care, a task force made up of representatives from multiple departments in the federal government. Cabinet members are also expected to brief the president on steps their respective agencies have taken “to protect reproductive rights” at Wednesday’s meeting, an administration official told reporters on Tuesday.
Wednesday’s executive order directs Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra to consider “all appropriate actions to ensure that health care providers comply with federal nondiscrimination laws so that women receive the medical care they need without delay,” including steps to provide health care providers with technical and legal guidance amid the patchwork of state legal restrictions on abortion care following the Supreme Court decision.
Last month, CNN reported that doctors are struggling to navigate Byzantine guidelines as states across the country pass increasingly strict abortion restrictions, with experts warning of a “massive chilling effect” on doctors performing miscarriage surgeries, even when doctors “are confident that what they are doing is within the letter of the law.” Wednesday’s order also directs HHS to consider actions to ensure women traveling across state lines seeking abortions can access health care services, including through Medicaid. Last month, a bill guaranteeing the right of women to travel across state lines to seek an abortion failed to pass the Senate after Republicans blocked the measure. The official said it would have allowed states to provide care to out-of-state patients , who seek an abortion, through Medicaid Waiver 1115, which allows states to waive certain state requirements for providing care and help cover “certain costs”.
The executive order further directs HHS to expand research efforts on maternal health data “to accurately measure the impact that declining access to reproductive health services is having on women’s health,” the official said Tuesday.
Wednesday’s executive order is the second Biden has signed since the Supreme Court’s decision overturning Roe v. Wade. Last month, Biden signed an order that he said would protect access to abortion and contraceptive care, protect patient privacy and create an interagency task force to use “every available federal tool to protect access to reproductive health care.”
Ultimately, however, there is no action the president can take to restore nationwide abortion rights, and Biden has publicly acknowledged that his options for expanding abortion access remain limited.
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