President Joe Biden has told Congress to pass legislation that removes all limits on abortion, including up to birth, and enshrine it in U.S. federal law.
His directive came as he signed an executive order to guarantee women can continue to end the life of an unborn “human” – a term used by the recent Supreme Court in their ruling overturning Roe v. Wade.
In a nationally-televised speech, Biden directed the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to expand access to various methods of abortion, including a pill called Mifeprex that can be taken to kill an unborn child up to the 10th week of pregnancy.
Biden’s order would call on the agency would, in essence, create a nationwide, federally run abortion clearing house to make abortion available and start a re-education campaign targeting the public. Recent polling finds that just over 11% of respondents believe a woman should be allowed to kill a child up to birth.
Biden also strongly criticized the Supreme Court decision.
READ: Democrats goes after pro-life womens clinics
“This was not a decision driven by the Constitution. Despite what the justices and majorities had said, this is not a decision that is driven by history,” Biden claimed even though states across the nation protected babies from abortions for decades before Roe v. Wade.
“We can not allow an out-of-control Supreme Court, working in conjunction with extremist elements of the Republican party, to take away freedoms…the choice we face as a nation is between the mainstream and the extreme,” he said.
In a turnabout from 18 months ago when the administration was pushing for contact tracing in Covid mitigation efforts that were mining personal data on user phones, Biden says he’s concerned about privacy as it relates to abortion.
“There’s an increasing concern that extremist governors and others will try to get that data off of your phone, which is out there in the ether, to find what you’re seeking, where you’re going, and what you’re doing in regard to your health care,” Biden said in prepared remarks at the White House in Washington before signing the order.
In addition, the White House announced that Attorney General Merrick Garland, a Biden appointee, and White House lawyers will convene a group of attorneys and outside groups to encourage representation of women seeking abortions, including representing women who travel to another state to get the procedure done.
Biden then urged people to vote in the upcoming midterms so that Congress can enact a law that replaces Roe v. Wade with legislation federalizing abortion.
“We need two additional pro-choice senators and a pro-choice house to codify Roe in law,” Biden said.
Democrats hold slim majorities in both the Senate and the House of Representatives, but some Democrats are pro-life, as are most Republicans. The abortion law passed by the House, which would have greatly expanded on Roe in terms of abortion access, was blocked by Republicans and Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) in March.
Father Frank Pavone of Priests for Life criticized the speech, saying Big Abortion is running Biden’s administration.
“The abortion industry is obviously running the executive branch of the federal government. That’s what happens when Democrats are in power. Yet there’s really not much the Administration can do,” Pavone. “The law is what it is as determined by the people and not by Joe Biden. And breaking the law is breaking the law. Period.”
Executive Director Janet Morana said Biden is “signaling to the medical profession and the abortion industry that they can go ahead and break the law. He’s saying ‘we got your back.’ It’s despicable.”
–Metro Voice and wire services
