Collectively, the actions show an administration that is receptive to at least the initial requests of advocates eager to codify a new era of abortion protection after the previous administration took restrictions on the procedure to unprecedented levels.
The announcement by the Biden government coincides with the eve of anti-abortion activists holding the annual March for Life rally on Friday – although it will be virtual this year. Former President Donald Trump made history in 2020 by being the first sitting president to take part in the event, attracting large crowds of supporters to the National Mall every year for decades.
The moves come as health care providers, reproductive rights groups and progressive legislators put a more permanent end to long-standing barriers to the procedure.
Abortion access abroad
Beyond U.S. borders, the impact of Trump’s extensive Mexico City policy, formally called ‘Protect Life in Global Health Assistance’, was ‘really devastating’, said Melvine Ouyo, a Nairobi reproductive health nurse and former clinical director at Family Health Options said. Kenya. “So many lives have been lost.”
The policy, also known as the ‘global gag rule’, has been introduced by Republican governments since President Ronald Reagan and repealed by Democrats. A State Department review published last year on the Trump administration’s policy to prevent funding for foreign organizations that perform or promote abortions found that it also affects efforts to treat tuberculosis and HIV / Aids. , as well as providing nutritional assistance, among others, had a significant impact in sub-Saharan Africa.
Lawyers and practitioners like Ouyo say the deaths are the result of cuts to all forms of women’s health care, including access to contraception, which send them on the lookout for illegal, often unsafe and fatal abortions.
Ouyu told CNN: “This global gag rule has been one of the most damaging policies for women’s lives, especially women coming from marginalized communities. Biden really has a lot to do.”
Seema Jalan, executive director of the Universal Access Project and Policy at the United Nations Foundation, said advocates see the opportunity for the Biden government to work with Congress to make broad changes. She cited the Helms Amendment – which excludes U.S. foreign aid for carrying out or promoting abortion, not only for foreign nonprofits, but also for governments, multilateral organizations, and U.S. nonprofits – and the Hyde Amendment. , which imposes similar restrictions on groups in the US. The policy currently provides for abortions in case of rape, incest or a threat to the pregnant woman’s life.
“There is the hard work of the government working with Congress to put in place permanent solutions to harmful policies: addressing global gag, Helmets, Hyde and other technical solutions that are very consequential,” Jalan said.
Domestic abortion access
Biden’s memorandum, while a significant change of direction, is only the beginning of advocates’ goals to restore the program.
“We expect a degree of commitment to the recovery of the program, the lifting of the rule and the repayment of long-standing providers in the network so that services can be restored in parts of the country that have been without Title X funding for so long, said Audrey Sandusky, communications director. for the National Family Planning & Reproductive Health Association (NFPRHA).
About 1.5 million people have lost access to Title X coverage, according to Sandusky. The group counts nearly three-quarters of the Title X awards under its membership of vendors and administrators and has worked with the Biden transition team and HHS staff on the future of Title X, she said.
Given how some “patients were in the dark” after they could no longer get free or cheap health care from their regular providers, “I would say it would take a long time before providers regained the trust and confidence that patients had in them. ” Sandusky said, ‘as well as’ regaining confidence in the federal government and reassuring suppliers that they have the support they need from this government and from Congress.’
In a call with reporters on Wednesday, President and CEO of Planned Parenthood Alexis McGill Johnson said Mexico City policy and the title X Abortion Reference Restriction ‘is a good start, which will increase access and people’s lives will significantly affect, but I will emphasize again, this is a start. ‘
When asked about talks between Planned Parenthood and the Biden administration on Title X, McGill described Johnson ‘very robust, and I would say, exciting talks, not only about domestic gag rule, but also about thinking about more investments can have access to family planning. and contraception, how to be more inclusive, how we can use policies to involve men as well, to involve other populations. ‘
“We need to improve and modernize Title X,” McGill Johnson said, adding later, “to make sure it meaningfully reflects the sexual and reproductive health care needs of all patients.”
Beyond Biden’s performance
Democratic Rep. Rosa DeLauro of Connecticut, chair of the Home Affairs Committee overseeing Title X funding, said in an interview with CNN on Wednesday that although she has not yet been in touch with Biden’s government on Title X, she intends to return the program to its previous form.
‘What I am committed to, as we have legal jurisdiction over Title X funding, is to work with the administration and the providers, those who have been forced out of the program, to ensure that the funding is there for them to get back in, ‘she said. “Or working in that legislative direction and ensuring that there are guarantees to make sure we can not have what the Trump administration has been trying to do here.”
Asked if she would try to increase funding in this legislative session, DeLauro replied: ‘I’m going to look at what we have through a grant, and so on, and if I can, I’ll work on the funding. ”
Democratic Sen. Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire will reintroduce the Global HER Law on Thursday, which will permanently repeal Mexico City policy. And in the House, Democratic Representative Jan Schakowsky of Illinois and others will once again draft a bill to repeal the Helms Amendment. Also in their sights: the Hyde Amendment.
Access to reproductive health care and abortion, if necessary, “is central to women’s independence, success, and physical autonomy,” Schakowsky told CNN. “If you can not control reproduction yourself, you can never really plan your life.”
More than 90 advocacy groups, including NFPRHA and Planned Parenthood, have offered the Biden Administration a ‘Blueprint for Sexual and Reproductive Health, Rights and Justice’ to call for such action and others, such as repealing the Hyde Amendment.
Marcela Howell, president of In Our Own Voice: National Black Women’s Reproductive Justice Agenda, which is one of the groups, told reporters on Wednesday that lawmakers discussing free access to abortion have contributed to their goals.
“The reality is that we have all fought the stigma around abortion, and if we do not enable the government and members of Congress to use the word abortion care, then it will promote the stigma,” she said. “And we believe that it is a safe and legal procedure that has approached women at different points in their lives, and the stigma surrounding it needs to be removed.”