Biden is expected to sign the executive order during the inaugural meeting of the administration’s recently established Task Force on Reproductive Healthcare Access, a task force comprised of representatives from multiple departments across the federal government. Cabinet members are also expected to brief the President on steps their respective agencies have taken “to defend reproductive rights” at Wednesday’s meeting, an administration official told reporters Tuesday.
Wednesday’s executive order directs Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra to consider “all appropriate actions to ensure health care providers comply with federal non-discrimination laws so that women receive medically necessary care without delay,” including steps to provide health care providers with technical and legal guidance amid the patchwork of state legal restrictions on abortion care following the Supreme Court’s decision.
The executive order further directs HHS to expand research efforts on maternal health data, “to accurately measure the impact that diminishing access to reproductive health care services has on women’s health,” the official said Tuesday.
Ultimately, however, there is no action the President can take to restore the nationwide right to an abortion, and Biden has publicly acknowledged that his options to expand abortion access remain limited.
