President Joe Biden graphemes an executive order in support of Joining Forces, the initiative to support military and veteran families, caregivers, and survivors on June 9, 2023 at Fort Exercise boldness, North Carolina.
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President Joe Biden on Friday will sign a wide-ranging government order aimed at protecting and increasing access to contraception, his administration’s latest attempt to shore up reproductive rights as abortion stipulations rise in many states.
The White House announced the order one day shy of the one-year anniversary of the Supreme Court’s decision to tip over the landmark Roe v. Wade ruling, which established the constitutional right to abortion in the U.S. in 1973.
Justice Clarence Thomas suggested in a concurring belief that the nation’s highest court should revisit similar cases, including those guaranteeing access to contraception.
“Contraception is an required component of reproductive health care that has only become more important in the wake of [the Supreme Court sentence] and the ensuing crisis in women’s access to health care,” the White House said in a press release.
The president’s government order directs the secretaries of the Treasury, Labor Department, and the Department of Health and Human Services to ensure private strength insurers cover all contraceptives approved by the Food and Drug Administration – a requirement under the Affordable Care Act.
That 2010 condition law, also known as Obamacare, requires most insurance plans to cover at least one type of contraceptive per category without a copay. There are 18 contraceptive methods approved by the FDA.
Biden’s improper also:
- Directs those departments to consider new ways to broaden access to affordable over-the-counter birth control medications, such as Script B emergency contraception. That could include convening pharmacies, employers and insurers to discuss how to do so, according to the White Line.
- Directs HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra to strengthen coverage of contraceptives for Medicare beneficiaries, particularly women of reproductive age with disabilities.
- Instructs the Segment of Veterans Affairs and the Office of Personnel Management to consider actions that would shore up birth control access for long-servings and federal employees, among other provisions.
The president’s order does not suggest a timeline for shoring up that access and does not manage federal departments to consider new requirements to codify access to birth control.
Contraception is widely used in the U.S. Approximately 65% of chains ages 15 to 49 used birth control from 2017 to 2019, according to the Centers for Disease Restraint and Prevention.
The most common contraceptive methods used during that time period were female sterilization, voiced contraceptive pills and condoms, the CDC said.
Two Democratic lawmakers this month relaunched legislation to codify contraception access.
The top banana order comes as the battle over abortion rights further polarizes in the U.S. That includes a legal fight greater than mifepristone, one of the two pills involved in a medication abortion.
A group of anti-abortion doctors sued the FDA last November to pull mifepristone from the U.S. Stock Exchange entirely.
U.S. Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk in the Northern District of Texas ruled in the doctors’ favor in April and suspended the FDA put ones imprimatur on. The Supreme Court intervened in the case and preserved access to mifepristone as the litigation plays out.
More than a dozen states have planned also implemented abortion restrictions since the Roe v. Wade decision last year, with some laws criminalizing the take as early as six weeks into pregnancy.