By Dave Andrusko
Addressing his fellow pro-abortion Democrats’ call for a response to the Supreme Court’s decision overturning Roe, Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra on Tuesday unveiled what he called an “action plan” on abortion.
ABC News’s Anne Flaherty and Libby Cathey quoted Becerra who said there’s no “magic bullet” but that “the administration was working with its top legal advisers to explore every option.”
“Stay tuned,” he told reporters.
Flaherty and Cathey seemed to be channeling their fellow reporters as well as “progressive” unhappiness when they wrote
Becerra’s comments are likely to be a steep disappointment for progressives after he promised to take action in the wake of the Supreme Court ruling. In his remarks, Becerra only noted that federal law allows for abortions through its Medicaid program in cases of rape and incest — a standard at odds with states like Arkansas.
On the one hand, Becerra said “Friday’s Supreme Court decision was despicable. But it was not unpredictable. HHS has been preparing for this for some time.” On the other hand, according to ABC News, “laid out largely existing policy protecting the right to abortion.”
This obviously frustrated reporters. “When pressed by ABC Senior White House Correspondent Mary Bruce on why he didn’t have more concrete proposals if the ruling was predictable, Becerra noted that he wanted to ensure the administration was on firm legal ground.”
Becerra said, “We’re not interested in going rogue and doing things just because we want to make sure what we tell Americans is accurate — because we hear, we know, a lot Americans are hearing a lot of inaccurate information.”
Among actions he ticked off, Flaherty and Cathey wrote, was “directing his Office of Civil Rights to ensure patient privacy of anyone seeking reproductive care, working to ensure the clinical judgment of doctors is supported in treating patients at risk because of pregnancy and working to expand access to family planning and contraceptives. He also said HHS will first take steps to increase access to medication abortion — but he said later to ‘stay tuned’ on what exactly those steps would be.”
Pro-abortion groups have a variety of “solutions.” Most of them would most likely run into legal problems. For example, “One option presented was to declare a public health emergency to free up federal funds, possibly to use for transportation, an idea supported by members of the Congressional Black Caucus,” Flaherty and Cathey wrote. “But this approach would likely be challenged in court as a violation of the Hyde Amendment, which bans federal funds to cover almost all abortions. Becerra did not call for one Tuesday.”
Another option that Democrats have urged on the administration was “to look into whether reproductive health services could be provided on federal lands or on federal property. White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre shot down the idea Tuesday, saying anyone who is not a federal employee who utilized such facilities could be subject to prosecution under some state laws.
“‘We understand the proposal as well the intention but here’s the thing, it could actually put women and providers at risk,’” she said.