US president Joe Biden has promised he will veto any national ban on abortion which may be passed by a future Congress controlled by Republicans.
He said that as long as he was in the White House any such prohibition on terminations across the country would not happen.
On Friday the president signed an executive order on reproductive health aimed at protecting access to medical abortion, emergency healthcare and contraception. He strongly criticised the ruling by the US supreme court last month that overturned the landmark 1973 Roe v Wade decision and eliminated a federal constitutional right to abortion.
Mr Biden described the court ruling as “terrible, extreme and totally wrong-headed”. He described the court — which has a conservative supermajority — as being “out of control”.
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The new presidential executive order directs health chiefs to produce a report within 30 days on steps to protect medical abortion, expand access on emergency contraception and IUDs, and increase public education around reproductive rights.
The Biden administration also wants the Federal Trade Commission to consider measures to protect the privacy of people who are searching online for information about abortion services.
The order also directs the attorney general and the White House to convene volunteer lawyers and organisations to “encourage robust legal representation of patients, providers and third parties lawfully seeking or offering reproductive healthcare services throughout the country”.
The president also said his administration would provide leave for federal workers travelling for medical care.
The Department of Health and Human Services in the US is also directed to increase outreach and public education efforts regarding access to reproductive healthcare services — including abortion — to get reliable information to the public.
Mr Biden again urged people concerned about the loss of abortion rights following the supreme court ruling to use their vote in the November midterm elections to elect politicians who would pass a law to guarantee such services. He said this was the fastest way to ensure abortion rights and that he would sign any such legislation into law.
The president said: ”The court now practically dares the women of United States to go to the ballot box and restore the very rights they’ve just taken away.” He said he did not think the court or Republican politicians “have a clue about the power of American women”.
Mr Biden highlighted the implications of the ending of the constitutional right to an abortion and pointed to a case where a child in Ohio had to travel to another state because of strict anti-abortion legislation that had been introduced in the aftermath of the supreme court ruling last month.
“This isn’t some imagined horror,” Mr Biden said. “It is already happening. “Just last week, it was reported that a 10-year-old girl was a rape victim — 10 years old — and she was forced to have to travel out of state to Indiana to seek to terminate the pregnancy and maybe save her life.”
“Imagine being that little girl. I’m serious, just imagine being that little girl,” he said.
