Blog | Subscribe | Free Trial | Contact Us | Cart | Donate | Planned Giving
Log In | Search
facebook
rss
twitter
  • CURRENT
    • Winter 2023
    • NEWSworthy: What’s Happening and What It Means to You
    • Blog
    • INSISTING ON LIFE
    • Pastoral Reflections
    • About Us
    • HLF In The News
    • LIBERTY TO DO WHAT? Hadley Arkes and Rusty Reno join George McKenna June 1, 2022 in New York
  • DINNER
    • GREAT DEFENDER OF LIFE DINNER 2022
    • HOST COMMITTEE Great Defender of Life Dinner 2022
    • Great Defender of Life 2022 Dinner Ticket
    • Great Defender of Life 2022 STUDENT or PREGNANCY CENTER STAFF Ticket
    • DINNER JOURNAL ADVERTISING 2022
  • ARCHIVE
    • Archive Spotlight
    • ISSUES IN HTML FORMAT
  • LEGACY
    • Planned Giving: Wills, Trusts, and Gifts of Stock
  • SHOP
    • Cart

NEWSworthy

0 Comment

HHS weighs declaring access to abortion a “public health emergency’

08 Mar 2023
Madeline Fry Schultz
abortion access post Roe, Biden Administration, Department of Health and Human Services
Print Friendly, PDF & Email

 

In response to the overturn of Roe v. Wade, the Department of Health and Human Services is weighing the possibility of declaring  a “public health emergency” more evidence of a concerted effort by the Biden administration to expand abortion access nationwide.

“There are discussions on a wide range of measures … that we can take to try to protect people’s rights,” HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra told Axios at the end of January. “There are certain criteria that you look for to be able to declare a public health emergency. That’s typically done by scientists and those that are professionals in those fields who will tell us whether we are in a state of emergency and based on that, I have the ability to make a declaration.”

In other words, while the department isn’t sure it has the justification to declare an “emergency,”  it sure would like to do so. Such a declaration could make it easier to distribute abortion pills, though it would likely face a judicial challenge, which is probably why the White House dismissed the idea last year.

Whether or not it chooses to declare an emergency, HHS is “constantly exploring additional actions we can take to protect and expand access to reproductive health care, including abortion care,” a department spokesperson told Axios.

So, it seems, is the rest of the Biden administration. This announcement is just the latest in a string of pro-abortion moves by advocates in the White House and beyond.

Last fall, President Joe Biden indicated that he would support federal funds to help women have abortions, a remarkable reversal of bipartisan precedent. A month earlier, the Department of Veterans Affairs released a statement announcing that it would provide abortion access to women even where it’s illegal  “when the life or health of the pregnant Veteran would be endangered if the pregnancy were carried to term, or when the pregnancy is the result of rape or incest.”(No matter that  life and health-of-the-mother exceptions already exist in pro-life laws across the country.)

The Biden administration has also greatly expanded access to chemical abortions by allowing abortion pills to be sent to women by mail and permitting drugstores such as CVS and Walgreens to sell them over the counter.

Currently, the “White House is jumping into state-level battles for women’s reproductive rights, lending legal and messaging advice to allies in states pushing restrictions,” Reuters reports, “as the Biden administration seeks to make abortion access a rallying cry in next year’s presidential election.”

With a divided Congress, it’s unlikely that abortion-related legislation will be passed anytime soon. But what pro-abortion politicians can’t accomplish legislatively, they’re intent on doing through the unaccountable administrative state. Biden needs to know his radical pro-abortion agenda is not popular, and that voters will remember it come the next election.

52 people have visited this page. 1 have visited this page today.
About the Author
Madeline Fry Schultz

Madeline Fry Schultz is a writer in Washington, D.C.

Social Share

  • google-share

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Comments will not be posted until approved by a moderator in an effort to prevent spam and off-topic responses.

*
*

captcha *

Get the Human Life Review

subscribe to HLR

Recent Posts

Wyoming Bans Abortion Pills

22 Mar 2023

Legal Issues on Chemical Abortions

13 Mar 2023

Rihanna’s Super Bowl pregnancy announcement is an unexpected pro-life moment

15 Feb 2023

CURRENT ISSUE

Anne Conlon Anne Hendershott B G Carter Brian Caulfield Christopher White Clarke Forsythe Colleen O’Hara Connie Marshner David Mills David Poecking David Quinn Diane Moriarty Dr. Donald DeMarco Edward Mechmann Edward Short Ellen Wilson Fielding Fr. Gerald E. Murray George McKenna Helen Alvaré Jane Sarah Jason Morgan Joe Bissonnette John Grondelski Kathryn Jean Lopez Kristan Hawkins Laura Echevarria Madeline Fry Schultz Maria McFadden Maffucci Mary Meehan Mary Rose Somarriba Meaghan Bond Nat Hentoff Nicholas Frankovich Patrick J. Flood Peter Pavia Rev. George G. Brooks Rev. Paul T. Stallsworth Stephen Vincent Tara Jernigan Ursula Hennessey Victor Lee Austin Vincenzina Santoro W. Ross Blackburn Wesley J. Smith William Murchison

Pages

  • Issues
  • Human Life Foundation Blog
  • About Us
  • Free Trial Issue
  • Contact Us
  • Shop
  • Planned Giving
  • TOPICS
  • GREAT DEFENDER OF LIFE DINNER

Follow Us On Twitter

Tweets by @HumanLifeReview

Find Us On Facebook

Human Life Review/Foundation

Search our Website

Contact Information

The Human Life Foundation, Inc.
The Human Life Review
271 Madison Avenue, Room 1005
New York, New York 10016
(212) 685-5210

Copyright (c) The Human Life Foundation.