Joe Biden’s ‘whole government’ abortion plan is a complete mystery

Days after the Supreme Court gave Texas the green light to enforce the most draconian anti-abortion laws in the country, President Joe Biden announced he would launch a “whole government effort” to protect access to abortion. pregnant.

But six months later, lawmakers tasked with codifying access to abortion still have no clue what the “whole government” response is supposed to be.

“Not a peek,” Senator Jon Tester (D-MT) told The Daily Beast when asked if he’d heard anything about a “whole government” approach.

“They haven’t shared that with me yet,” said Senator Tim Kaine (D-VA).

Senator Debbie Stabenow (D-MI), a staunch abortion rights advocate, says lawmakers are currently in contact with the White House about how to protect access to abortion — but before the leak bombshell Monday night, they haven’t said any specifics yet.

The bombshell leak was covered by Politico, which reported on the draft Supreme Court decision on Dobbs v. Women’s Health, authored by Justice Samuel Alito and starring the four most conservative judges on the court. Among them, the majority found that “Roe was gravely wrong from the outset” and stipulates that the decision “must be overruled”.

For months, the administration has been asked by reporters to detail how it plans to deal with potential death in the landmark 1973 case that asserted abortion rights across the United States. . Those questions emerged with a new level of urgency after the Supreme Court refused to uphold Texas law, a decision that — combined with oral arguments in Dobbs in which a majority of the judges clearly supported repeal Roe—That turned the upside of guaranteed abortion rights from a perennial fear into a possible fact.

At the time, Biden said that the White House Gender Policy Council would work with the Departments of Health and Human Services and the Department of Justice “to see what steps the federal government can take to ensure that women in Texas have access to safe and legal abortion,” and to examine “what legal tools do we have to segregate women and service providers.”

Biden on Tuesday reiterated his faith in the panel — headed until recently by Dr. Jill Biden’s former chief of staff, Julissa Reynoso Pantaleón, and now run by Time’s Up former policy director Jennifer Klein — said in a statement that they are working with the White House Counsel’s office to prepare a response “to the continuing assault on abortion and reproductive rights, with multiple possible outcomes in cases are pending before the Supreme Court.”

But the panel’s work is conducted in near complete secrecy – a topic familiar to Biden and those who work for him – with only the silliest hints as to a strategy to enter an already-existing war. half a century.

“What we’re doing now is working really hard to explore all the options, every option to protect reproductive health care,” Klein told Politico last week, “including including access to abortion, and we will continue to do that.”

Some parts of the administration have made more specific — and overt — efforts to expand access to abortion. Following the leak, Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra highlighted the enactment of new rules for Title X expanding access to family planning services, grants 1/4 billion dollars to restore access to those services after the Trump administration returns and $6.6 million to invest to address reproductive health needs where local laws limited access to family planning services.

With the White House’s response to RoeThe reversal of the situation is not over yet, the government has openly entrusted the National Assembly to deal with the problem. Asked about preparing for a post-Roe US, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki skipped discussing specific plans, instead calling on Congress to pass the Women’s Health Protection Act and “systematize this fundamental right into legislation” —says she has made it in statements and briefings more than half a dozen times this year.

Biden, also insisted on Tuesday that “it will fall to our nation’s elected officials” to defend access to abortion.

“We will need more pro-choice senators and a pro-choice majority in the House to pass legislation that codifies Roe“,” Biden said, “which I will work to pass and sign into law. “

It’s not that simple for Democrats in Congress, however.

Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) said Tuesday that he will put a vote on the calendar for the WHOA, which passed the House of Representatives last September. But with the status quo intact, the legislation is hardly guaranteed to fail, even as moderately pro-abortion Republicans like Sens. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) and Susan Collins (R-ME) joined Democrats in supporting the measure.

Psaki said as much on Tuesday, telling reporters aboard Air Force One that “there aren’t even enough votes, even without a cameraman,” to pass the WHOA.

Thanks. Joe Manchin (DW.V.), who has called himself “pro-life,” and Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ) on Tuesday made it clear that they have no intention of supporting changes to the film. — even to protect abortion access at the federal level.

There is also debate among some moderators as to whether WPAA is the best mechanism for encryption. Roe v. Wade, or whether Schumer should advance a more modest bill. Kaine told reporters that during a Senate Democratic caucus lunch on Tuesday, they discussed “various options” for codifying abortion rights into law. If the WHOA goes public, he hopes there will be some “minimalist” modifications.

“The simpler and more straightforward you make the bill, the more likely you are to get some Republican votes and unify the Democrats, which I think is important,” he added. .

But the politics of abortion, perhaps the most charged political issue in the country, is far from straightforward, as evidenced by Biden’s apparent discomfort with discussing the issue. A Catholic who once described abortion as “a mistake from the moment of conception”, the president has gone through a decades-long process on the issue, despite moving views on abortion. pregnancy continued to get him into trouble. During the Democratic presidential primaries, Biden has been open about government funding of abortion, and since taking office, Biden has only used the word “abortion” in public. only time.

That is on Tuesday.