Citing the legal complexities of upending nearly 50 years of abortion protections, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Xavier Becerra said “there is no magic bullet” to counter the Supreme Court’s abortion decision and urged patience as his department reviews its options.
“This is a moment of crisis in healthcare,” Becerra told reporters Tuesday morning. “We will leave no stone unturned. All options are on the table. We will do everything within the legal limit of the law to reach patients and support providers.”
For now, Becerra outlined five areas in which he is instructing HHS and its agencies to focus their efforts:
- HHS will work to increase access to medication abortion, particularly through federally supported programs and services that are required to provide medication abortion in certain circumstances such as those involving rape, incest or the life of the mother.
- The Office for Civil Rights will ensure privacy and nondiscrimination for reproductive care patients and providers.
- HHS will examine its authority under the Emergency Medical Treatment Act to support doctors' and hospitals’ clinical judgment when treating pregnant patients.
- All HHS agencies will work to ensure providers across the care continuum have appropriate family planning training and resources.
- The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services will “take every legally available step to protect family planning care.” This includes protection of emergency contraceptives and long-acting reversible contraceptives and ensuring that family planning providers can participate in Medicaid.
Becerra’s comments often returned to public education efforts HHS will support to inform those living in abortion restrictive states what reproductive health care rights, coverage and services are available to them. To this end, the department launched a new website, ReproductiveRights.gov, and will be tapping the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to help spread the information, he said.
“We know there is misinformation out there about what the Supreme Court did,” the secretary said. “We want to make sure it’s clear that Americans didn’t lose every right they have. Americans can still assert their rights and we will do everything we can to protect them.”
Becerra reiterated his department’s support for the initial steps announced by President Joe Biden and U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland surrounding regulatory protections for medication abortion products and individuals’ right of transport to a state in which abortion is legal.
For the former, Becerra stressed that the Food and Drug Administration’s determination that authorized medication abortion products are safe and legal means they are “available for prescription.”
“What I won’t do … is tell you precisely what that means because, as I said before, we’re going to stay within the confines of the law,” Becerra said. “I want to make sure whatever we tell you is within the confines of the law.”
The secretary was similarly noncommittal on what HHS’ support of transportation rights could entail and whether the federal government would be throwing its support behind specific ongoing challenges to state laws.
“It’s tough to answer some of these questions more precisely until we know exactly what the states are doing,” Becerra said. “If we see a state, for example, trying to deny a particular patient care in an emergency room, which could include abortion care services if it’s appropriate to preserve that woman’s life or health—we will take action, we will do everything we can. But we have to make sure first Americans know what their rights are.”
Becerra also said HHS is “aware of a number of ideas and proposals” being floated by abortion rights supporters and other politicians, such as establishing healthcare clinics with abortion services on federal land.
Some of these approaches are being considered internally, but “we have made no decisions yet. We certainly would have a conversation with the president to make sure we implement his directives to us in trying to protect women’s reproductive healthcare services. But as I said, every option is on the table,” he said.
Becerra’s comments are unlikely to appease Democrats who criticized the Biden administration this weekend for its cautious response to the court’s ruling.
In public comments and dual letters to the president, 34 Senate Democrats (PDF) and 20 Black female Democratic legislators (PDF) urged the administration to take full advantage of its executive powers, including the declaration of a public health emergency and a national emergency for additional federal flexibilities.