US President Joe Biden addresses the nation on the White House in Washington, DC on June 24, 2022 following the US Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe vs. Wade.
Mandel Ngan | AFP | Getty Images
President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris highlighted the GOP’s push to roll back access to abortion in remarks Tuesday, 100 days for the reason that Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade’s constitutional right to terminate an unwanted pregnancy.
“Today, extremist so-called leaders are attacking the liberty and liberty of hundreds of thousands of girls at a state level. In Arizona for instance a judge recently upheld an 1864 — that is not a statute, that is the 12 months — 1864 abortion ban with no exceptions for rape or incest,” Harris said, noting the same ban from 1849 in Wisconsin. “That was 173 years ago. And make note that at the moment women also didn’t have the precise to vote.”
Greater than a dozen Republican-led states — most of which don’t allow for exceptions for rape or incest — have effectively banned abortions for the reason that court’s Dobbs v. Jackson ruling that gave that authority back to the states. The changes have affected nearly 30 million women of reproductive age, 22 million of whom cannot access abortion after six weeks, in response to the White House.
“Extreme abortion bans are having consequences that reach beyond abortion, including reports of girls being denied access to needed prescriptions and contraception at pharmacies and on college campuses,” Jennifer Klein, director of the White House Gender Policy Council, wrote in a memo released ahead of Biden’s meeting along with his Task Force on Reproductive Healthcare Access.
Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris spoke on the event, rolling out latest guidelines from the Department of Education reminding universities of their requirements to guard access to reproductive health-care in addition to $6 million in latest grants to guard and expand reproductive services, in response to Klein’s memo.
Biden cited an incident on the University of Idaho where staff were advised to stop offering contraception after a sweeping abortion ban was enacted across the state because the impetus for the brand new guidelines.
“Folks, what century are we in? What are we doing? I respect everyone’s personal decision to make on this but my Lord, we’re talking about contraception here, it should not be that controversial,” Biden said.
He said he directed Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona to look into the incident.
“Today I would like to be clear to varsity leaders in America: Access to contraception shouldn’t be in query,” Cardona said. “And access to health care, including reproductive health care, is critical to the wellbeing and success of our nation’s students. For those who are committed to students’ success, it’s essential to be committed to students’ health.”
The meeting comes a month out from the midterm elections where Democrats are susceptible to losing control of 1 or each houses of Congress. The move sheds a highlight on the administration’s work on abortion access and is seen as giving a lift to candidates locked in tight races.
Some Republicans in Congress need to further restrict abortion access. Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina recently proposed a national abortion ban that might have the penalty of jail time for doctors who perform them.
