REHOBOTH BEACH, Del. (AP) — President Joe Biden mentioned Sunday he’s contemplating declaring a public well being emergency to unencumber federal sources to advertise abortion access regardless that the White House has mentioned it doesn’t appear to be “a great option.”
He additionally supplied a message to individuals enraged by the Supreme Court’s ruling final month that ended a constitutional proper to abortion and who’ve been demonstrating throughout the nation: “Keep protesting. Keep making your point. It’s critically important.”
The president, in remarks to reporters throughout a cease on a motorcycle journey close to his household’s Delaware seashore home, mentioned he lacks the facility to power the dozen-plus states with strict restrictions or outright bans on abortion to permit the process.
“I don’t have the authority to say that we’re going to reinstate Roe v. Wade as the law of the land,” he mentioned, referring to the Supreme Court’s choice from 1973 that had established a nationwide proper to abortion. Biden mentioned Congress must codify that proper and for that to have a greater probability sooner or later, voters must elect extra lawmakers who assist abortion entry.
Biden mentioned his administration is making an attempt to do a “lot of things to accommodate the rights of women” after the ruling, together with contemplating declaring a public well being emergency to unencumber federal sources. Such a transfer has been pushed by advocates, however White House officers have questioned each its legality and effectiveness, and famous it could nearly definitely face authorized challenges.
The president mentioned he has requested officers “to look at whether I have the authority to do that and what impact that would have.”
On Friday, Jen Klein, the director of the White House Gender Policy Council, mentioned it “didn’t seem like a great option.”
“When we looked at the public health emergency, we learned a couple things: One is that it doesn’t free very many resources,” she instructed reporters. “It’s what’s in the public health emergency fund, and there’s very little money — tens of thousands of dollars in it. So that didn’t seem like a great option. And it also doesn’t release a significant amount of legal authority. And so that’s why we haven’t taken that action yet.”
Associated Press author Zeke Miller in Washington contributed to this report.
