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| HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra photo credit: Gage Skidmore / Flickr |
- Increasing access to abortion drugs by ensuring that federally-supported programs comply with law requiring them to provide abortion drugs in cases of rape, incest, or to save the mother's life
- Ensuring privacy and nondiscrimination for abortionists and women seeking abortion
- Supporting doctors' "clinical judgment" when treating pregnant women "and reaffirming that abortion care can be appropriate to stabilize patients" under the Emergency Medical Treatment Act
- Ensuring all healthcare providers have training and resources to commit abortions or refer patients for abortion
- Directing the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) "to take every legally available step" to protect abortion and contraception. This includes "[making] clear that family planning providers are able to participate in the Medicaid program."
It is worth noting that abortion is never medically necessary to save the life of a mother. In situations where the woman's life is in jeopardy, doctors can end pregnancy via preterm delivery (which is also faster than abortion). Preterm delivery may result in a child's death, but it does not intentionally kill the child. It also gives the child a chance to live. The youngest preterm children have survived at 21 weeks gestation. As medical knowledge advances, it is likely that even younger children will survive birth.
At a news conference on Tuesday, Becerra was asked if the federal government could put abortion clinics on federal land to bypass state laws or help women travel to different states to get abortions. He responded that "every option is on the table."
Becerra's press release included an anecdote noting the extreme difference in abortion's legality throughout the midwest.
"I was at a Planned Parenthood clinic in St. Louis, Missouri, on Friday morning when the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. I saw in real time the impact of this unconscionable decision. The Clinic Director had to almost immediately start turning away patients as the state’s ban went into effect. This clinic has stopped providing safe and legal abortion care. People in the room were visibly shaken, there were tears and an unshakeable sense of sadness.
After my visit to the clinic in St. Louis, I traveled across the state line to another clinic in Fairview Heights, Illinois – a state that, unlike Missouri, still had lawful abortion care. There, I visited a site that helps patients get care by providing assistance – ranging from helping patients find appointments to paying for their travel expenses –and abortion care. It was shocking that, in the United States of America, a short drive can make such a dire and draconian difference in health care outcomes. I saw restrictions that leave women and families on unequal footing and widen maternal health disparities."
