Biden’s Health Department mulls declaring public health emergency on abortion, claiming it’s an emergency to NOT kill babies
02/02/2023 / By Arsenio Toledo
The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) under President Joe Biden is considering declaring a public health emergency due to the lack of access to abortion in many states.
Abortion activists and Democratic lawmakers alike have been urging the White House and the HHS for months to take even more drastic steps to respond to the rollback of abortion rights following the overturning of Roe v. Wade, which they claim has created a “full-scale reproductive health crisis” across the United States. (Related: Walgreens, CVS to sell ABORTION PILLS in states where abortion is still legal.)
“There are discussions on a wide range of measures … that we can take to try to protect people’s rights,” said HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra. “There are certain criteria that you look for to be able to declare a public health emergency. That’s typically done by scientists and those that are professionals in those fields who will tell us whether we are in a state of emergency, and based on that, I have the ability to make a declaration.”
These so-called professionals have yet to make a full assessment of what a public health emergency declaration on abortion would look like and whether the current conditions merit it.
In an additional statement, an HHS spokesperson said the department is constantly exploring additional actions it can take “to protect and expand access to reproductive healthcare, including abortion care.” The spokesperson added that the department will prioritize the actions that can “give us the highest impact and most durable solutions.”
Public health emergency declaration would allow Biden to deploy armed officers to protect abortion rights
The HHS secretary has the authority to determine when a certain disease or disorder “presents a public health emergency.” Such declarations have been used broadly to respond to everything from diseases like the Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19), to the opioid crisis and even to natural disasters.
Lawmakers claim that declaring a public health emergency would allow the Biden administration to support states that have legal or constitutional protections in place for abortion and to “accelerate access to new medications authorized for abortion.”
It would also allow the federal government to deploy the Public Health Service Commissioned Corps, a branch of the Public Health Service made up of over 6,000 armed and uniformed officers, to be deployed to provide even more abortion services.
Mary Ziegler, professor of law and an expert on abortion law at the University of California, Davis, noted that an emergency declaration could provide people in states with abortion restrictions to travel out-of-state to get abortions or abortion medication. It could also provide women in these states funding that they would otherwise not have access to.
Rachel Rebouche, a professor of law at Temple University in Philadelphia, noted that an emergency declaration could be used to make abortion medication more widely available and act as a “countermeasure needed to mitigate the effects of a health crisis resulting from abortion bans.”
If the HHS does declare a public health emergency on abortion, it would likely face legal challenges and be prevented from being enacted.
“It would be hard to imagine a federal court challenge to that … ending well for the administration, but by the same token, it might have some value in the short term,” said Ziegler.
Learn the federal government’s latest actions regarding abortions in the United States at Abortions.news.
Watch this clip from Next News Network discussing how the federal government is taking steps to enable millions of additional abortions per year across the country.
This video is from the News Clips channel on Brighteon.com.
More related stories:
Abortion industry wants legal immunity to kill live-birth babies who survive botched abortions.
Bill Gates pledges $7 billion to control population and promote abortion in Africa.
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