Here’s What Biden’s Executive Order on Abortion Does—and More Importantly, Doesn’t Do

President Joe Biden signed an Executive Order Friday aimed at protecting access to abortion and other forms of reproductive health care in the wake of the Supreme Court’s devastating decision overturning Roe v Wade. Like pretty much all executive orders, it’s both an encouraging sign of this administration’s priorities, and also extremely lacking in practical impact.

The order aims “to protect and expand access to abortion care, including medication abortion,” and “to otherwise protect and expand access to the full range of reproductive healthcare services,” including emergency contraception and emergency care for issues like miscarriages and ectopic pregnancies. There are also a number of proposals regarding public awareness and information campaigns, as well as words about digital privacy and some plans to organize pro bono legal services for abortion-related issues.

As with other executive orders, this is not so much an order as it is a declaration of assignments for various departments to start looking into. That’s disheartening for those who want and especially those who need immediate action. (As a reminder, every day that passes without clear action is another day that pregnant people in many states don’t have access to safe and legal abortion. This need is immediate.)

What else can Biden do?

Of course, there’s not too much that Biden can do to codify abortion protections without the support of Congress and the courts, but there is absolutely more than he can do than this. During a recent appearance on MSNBC, Elie Mystal, who is a justice correspondent for The Nation and absolutely a person you should be following on Twitter if that’s a place where you like to get your expert opinions, laid out some realistic, tangible, and profoundly impactful things Biden could do if he wanted to.

In rapid-fire fashion, @ElieNYC lists off various ways President Biden could expand abortion access right now. Watch: pic.twitter.com/jjSmvQAdL4

— The Katie Phang Show (@katiephangshow) July 7, 2022

What could Biden do? He could establish abortion facilities on federal land. He could make abortion medication available at federal government facilities. He could provide federal travel vouchers for those needing to travel out of state to seek an abortion. Basically, Biden keeps saying this is important to him. He says he’ll do whatever he can to protect reproductive freedoms. Those are nice words to hear and a lot of people are feeling very grateful right now just to hear them. But we can also call out the fact that this is not all he can do—there is much, much more within his ability.

SCOOP: The Biden administration considered declaring a public health emergency to preserve broad access to abortion services following the overturn of Roe, but officials ultimately decided against the move, according to people familiar with the matter. (Story on @TheTerminal)

— Shira Stein (@shiramstein) July 8, 2022

Biden, like every politician in office, needs to be held accountable. And we can appreciate the good acts and important gestures while also not letting them stop at what is very clearly Step One of a long and difficult process. Our impact doesn’t stop at our vote, we get to push them all to do more every step of the way. It’s not complaining, it’s democracy.

I’ll wait to see final text on Biden’s incoming executive order on abortion rights, but

it’s important to note here that pushing your democratically elected leaders to do better is part of what that democracy thing is all about. https://t.co/SooD1z1myh

— Atima Omara (@atima_omara) July 8, 2022

(image: Alex Wong/Getty Images)