President Joe Biden will sign an executive order Friday aimed at protecting abortion rights in response to the landmark decision by the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade.
Biden is expected to sign the executive order during a Roosevelt Room ceremony Friday morning. Vice President Kamala Harris is also scheduled to attend.
Democrats and advocates have been pressuring the White House take a stronger stance to codify abortion access. Last month, Biden hinted he was considering taking executive action, telling Jimmy Kimmel that while he believed Congress should codify Roe, “There’s some executive orders I could employ, we believe — we’re looking at that right now.”
Friday’s executive order will prompt Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra to take steps to ensure access to abortion, including FDA-approved medication abortion and expanded access “to the full range of reproductive health services,” according to an administration fact sheet shared with CNN. Those services include “emergency contraception and long-acting reversible contraception like intrauterine devices (IUDs),” the fact sheet says, citing coverage of birth control under the Affordable Care Act.
HHS is tasked with submitting a report within the next 30 days to the President regarding the implementation of the order’s provisions, which also include steps to increase outreach and protect the medical and digital privacy of patients seeking abortions.
In addition, the order establishes an interagency task force between the HHS and the White House Gender Policy Council, which includes Attorney General Merrick Garland, who the White House says will provide “technical assistance to states affording legal protection to out-of-state patients as well as providers who offer legal reproductive health care.”
