President Announces Executive Order to Improve Birth Control as Republicans Call for National Restrictions

Joe Biden on Friday put reproductive rights at the center of his 2024 re-election crusade when the U. S. president was elected to the center of his presidency. The U. S. government organized a rally around abortion rights advocacy, won three high-profile endorsements from teams committed to the issue, and announced an executive order to access contraception.

These moves contrasted with the organization of Republican candidates, many of whom attended the annual Faith conference.

Abortion has become a difficult factor for Republicans because of Americans’ maximum abortion rights after the conservative-dominated U. S. Supreme Court last year struck down the federal right to terminate a pregnancy.

On Friday, however, former Vice President Mike Pence doubled down on his hardline stance in a speech calling for national restrictions on abortion, a position that was noted to have won broad support. Pence’s former boss, Donald Trump, will face the same convention on Saturday and has sought in recent weeks to take a less far-fetched stance.

Meanwhile, Biden and Democrats are attacking abortion, pointing to the massive loss of reproductive freedoms for millions of women since the U. S. Supreme Court struck down the landmark Roe v. Wade ruling. Wade that establishes abortion freedoms.

On Friday, Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris received endorsements from the Planned Parenthood Action Fund, Naral Pro-Choice America and Emily’s List. The teams are getting ahead of the re-election effort to underscore the importance of the factor to Democrats as the election year approaches, team leaders told The Associated Press.

“I think President Biden has been an incredibly valuable partner, along with Vice President Harris, in countering the onslaught of attacks that we’ve seen,” said Alexis McGill Johnson, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood Action Fund.

Biden and his fellow Democrats have already felt the strength of the problem: Most Americans need abortion legalized nationwide. In the run-up to the 2022 midterm elections, many political pundits ignored the issue, but it is one of the main considerations of voters, who consistently rejected efforts to limit abortion in states when given the opportunity.

Biden’s crusade director, Julie Chavez Rodriguez, said the president and vice president were proud to have won the groups’ help. Since last year’s Supreme Court ruling, “we’ve noticed the horrible effect Maga’s excessive schedule has on women’s health,” she said, referring to Trump’s “Make America Great Again” slogan.

Biden said he would focus on reproductive health care, adding that he enshrines the right to abortion in federal law. He is expected to deliver that message in remarks Friday at a rally with first woman Jill Biden, Harris and actor Doug Emhoff.

Meanwhile, Biden’s executive order aims to increase access to contraception, a growing fear for Democrats after some conservatives signaled their willingness to go beyond abortion by regulating contraception. In 2017, only about 65 percent, or 46. 9 million, of the 72. 2 million women and women ages 15 to 49 in the United States had any form of contraception.

In a statement, Biden highlighted reproductive fitness as the most sensible priority of his administration following Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization of the conservative-led court that overturned Roe v. Wade.

“Contraception is an imperative component of reproductive health care that has become more vital in the wake of Dobbs and the resulting crisis in women’s access to health,” Biden said.

Biden seeks to strengthen access to “affordable, high-quality contraceptive services and a circle of relatives making plans,” he added. This is his third decree on access to reproductive health care since Dobbs’ decision.

The measures include expanding access through Medicaid, improving contraceptive policy through Medicare, and locating tactics to force personal health insurance companies to provide contraceptives and family members to plan as needed.

The consequences of restricting abortion in the United States temporarily shifted from the end of an unwanted pregnancy to miscarriage and pregnancy care in general.

Women in states with strict restrictions cannot access care for pregnancy-related complications. Doctors who face fraudulent payments if they perform abortions are afraid to treat patients who are not yet in poor enough health to be considered treatable.

Over the past year, 22 U. S. states have lost their jobs. The U. S. has pursued a ban or very restrictive policies on abortion. However, other states have expanded into abortion care. Biden’s leadership brought together combined leaders from all 50 states to discuss a plan on how to expand and work together to help others in more restrictive states.

Most states that impose serious restrictions on abortion are also states that have the highest rates of maternal mortality and the highest rates of stillbirth and miscarriage. Black women are disproportionately affected: They are more than 3 times more likely to die from pregnancy-related reasons than white women, according to the U. S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. U. S.

Associated Press contributed to this story.