Biden’s executive order paving way for Medicaid to fund interstate travel for abortions
Biden’s order also calls on health care providers to comply with federal nondiscrimination laws and streamline the collection of key data and information on maternal health.
Medicaid could help women travel to other states to obtain an abortion under an executive order signed by President Joe Biden this week.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services would invite states where abortion remains legal to apply for permission to use Medicaid funds to “provide reproductive health care to women who live in states where abortion is banned,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre says.
However, details remain to be worked out, and it is illegal to use federal funding to pay for abortions unless a woman’s life is in danger or a pregnancy is the result of rape or incest. Crossing state lines to get abortions has become an issue since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade and opened the door for new restrictions on abortion at the state level. More women are asking for help traveling to get the procedure in the month after the decision, according to the National Abortion Federation. The organization has paid for 76 hotel rooms and booked 52 bus or plane trips during that time, up from only a handful in the same time period last year.
Biden’s order also calls on health care providers to comply with federal nondiscrimination laws and streamline the collection of key data and information on maternal health at the National Institutes of Health and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Biden describes the court’s decision on abortion as a “health care crisis” and says he wants to make sure “every part of the federal government does its part at this critical moment where women’s health and lives are on line.”
The new order falls short of what many Democratic lawmakers and abortion advocacy groups have demanded of the Biden administration. Some have asked Biden to declare a public health emergency on abortion, which White House officials say would do little to free up federal resources or activate new legal authorities.
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The order is the latest in a series of executive actions from the Biden administration since the constitutional right to an abortion was eliminated in the Supreme Court’s ruling on Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization in June. Biden once again calls on Congress to codify Roe v. Wade into law. “If Congress fails to act, the people of this country need to elect senators and representatives who will restore Roe and protect the right to privacy, freedom and equality,” he says.