On what will be the 50th anniversary of the Roe v. Supreme Court Wade, the White House took executive action to protect medication abortions when there were reproductive health restrictions at the state level.
Vice President Kamala Harris announced President Joe Biden’s decision to sign the presidential memorandum on Sunday during a speech in Florida. Harris is in the state capital of Tallahassee to talk about the next steps in the fight for reproductive rights and to commemorate what will be the golden anniversary of the high court’s decision that made abortion a national right.
“Last year, so-called leaders in the statehouse here in Tallahassee passed a radical abortion ban with no exceptions, even for survivors of crimes like rape and child molestation and human trafficking,” Harris said. “In Florida, health care providers face up to five years in prison for just doing their job. And now, the state is also targeting drug abortions, and is even threatening Florida pharmacists with criminal charges if they give drugs prescribed by medical professionals.
“And Florida isn’t the only one. Twenty-two states have announced they won’t follow the new federal rule that allows women to get prescription drugs from certified pharmacies. Imagine,” he continued. “So today, we fight again.”
The memorandum directs the secretary of Health and Human Services, in consultation with the attorney general and the secretary of Homeland Security, to consider new guidance to protect patients, health care providers and pharmacies who attempt to legally access, prescribe or dispense mifepristone – a drug that has been administered. approved by the Food and Drug Administration for decades to safely and effectively induce abortion. Mifepristone can be used alone or in combination with misoprostol, another pill used in medical abortion.
Medication abortion is still legal at the federal level. Earlier this month, the FDA decided to allow providers to continue using telehealth to prescribe mifepristone, and created a new option for certified pharmacies to supply patients. But some state-level Republican officials are working to prevent abortion-seekers from legally obtaining mifepristone and prevent pharmacies from being certified by the FDA to dispense the drug.
Biden’s memorandum also directs the HHS secretary to ensure patients are protected from harassment, threats or violence when attempting to access legal reproductive care, including medication abortion.
The Supreme Court, which has a conservative majority, overturned Roe v. Wade in a decision last summer, taking away the constitutional right to an abortion.
Since then, dozens of states have moved to implement abortion bans – including Florida, where Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis recently floated changing the state’s 15-week ban to a six-week ban. Republicans in at least two states have introduced bills to criminalize those who seek abortions, and Alabama’s attorney general has promised to prosecute people who use abortion pills before running again.
On Sunday, abortion rights advocates across the country participated in the first organized Women’s March since the fall of Roe. The march returned to several cities across the country, while the largest event was held in Washington, DC The Women’s March came just two days after the annual anti-abortion March for Life returned to Washington for the first time since the Supreme Court overturned it. Roe.
“America is the land of the free and the home of the brave,” Harris said Sunday. “But let’s ask: Can we be free if women can’t make decisions about themselves? Can we be free if doctors can’t take care of patients? Can we be truly free if families can’t make intimate decisions about their own lives?
Alicia Devine/Tallahassee Democrat via Associated Press
Dr. Sujatha Prabhakaran, an abortion physician with Planned Parenthood of Southwest and Central Florida, said in Tallahassee the difficult decisions that health care providers must now make in a state with strict abortion restrictions.
“Since the Dobbs decision, my colleagues and I have felt heartache time and time again. We have to tell our patients that we cannot provide the care they are trained and qualified. They know that we want to help and do not blame us, but they know that they do not have take control of yourself,” he said before introducing the vice president.
“And for those of us who have been around for a long time – people who can get pregnant, people who have black or brown skin, people who have lower incomes or do not speak a dominant language, or who have different abilities – losing us. reproductive freedom has told that we are less important, less valuable and less safe.
Reproductive rights advocates, including the president and vice president, have been calling on Congress to enact abortion rights since Roe was overturned. But with Republicans now in control of the House, many GOP lawmakers are pushing for the opposite: a nationwide abortion ban. Despite House Republicans’ current efforts to pass an anti-choice bill that includes misinformation about abortion, the legislation is likely to die in the Democratic-controlled Senate.