Biden Moves to Safeguard Accessibility of Abortion Medication.

On Sunday, President Biden issued a presidential memorandum on what would have been the 50th anniversary of Roe v. Wade to protect access to abortion medicines across the country.

The declaration was made in Florida by Vice President Kamala Harris, who was discussing the administration’s attempts to expand abortion rights.

Harris stated during her remarks in Tallahassee, Florida, that the President had ordered the Democratic Cabinet and administration to identify the barriers to accessing prescription medication and advise further actions to make sure that doctors can legally prescribe and pharmacies can dispense so that women can access secure, safe, and effective medicines.

According to a White House statement, the Presidential Memorandum on Further Efforts to Protect Access to Reproductive Healthcare Services will lead the Secretary of Health and Human Services to work alongside the Attorney General and Secretary of Homeland Security to review potential new guidance for patients, healthcare providers, and pharmacies across the country seeking to access, prescribe, or provide mifepristone legally.

The document also requests the Attorney General and the Secretary of Homeland Security investigate other safe and legal ways for patients to obtain reproductive health care, such as abortion pills from pharmacies.

Similarly, the White House Interagency Task Force on Reproductive Healthcare Access will collaborate with the Secretaries of Justice, Health and Human Services, and Defense to remove obstructions that prevent patients, pharmacists, and doctors from obtaining abortion drugs.

While the federal government is taking steps to safeguard this part of reproductive healthcare, Harris noted that many states have taken it further and implemented full restrictions. She went on to name the numerous states that have implemented prohibitions on abortions that are now all in effect.

Similarly, Harris has urged Congress to pass a reproductive rights measure, claiming that President Joe Biden will sign and support such a bill into law if it reaches his desk.

Harris urged allies and fellow leaders to keep going because “it’s the right side of history” and not to lose hope.

When the Supreme Court reversed its landmark decision in June 2022, removing the constitutional right to abortion and giving individual states the option to allow, limit, or outlaw abortion, Harris’s comments only came many months later.

Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, an opinion in which the state of Mississippi sought the Supreme Court to overturn a lower court finding that had blocked a prohibition on abortions after 15 weeks of gestation, was the case in which the Supreme Court made its decision.