President Joe Biden has said he ran for office "to restore the soul of the nation, rebuild the middle class, and unite the country." With 2024 looming, it's time to take stock of other promises he has made while campaigning and in office. This Washington Examiner series, Oath of Office, will investigate whether Biden has kept up his end of the bargain. Part Five will examine his pledge to protect abortion access.
President Joe Biden has fallen short of his campaign promise to codify Roe v. Wade but has taken action to use executive authority to promote access to abortion and contraception.
In October 2020, shortly after the death of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Biden pledged to codify a right to abortion through legislation, recognizing that constitutional protections for abortion would be in danger if then-President Donald Trump appointed Amy Coney Barrett to the bench.
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Despite his efforts to encourage the Senate to bypass the filibuster to pass legislation on abortion, Congress did not enact national abortion protections before the 2022 midterm elections, in which Republicans gained the House of Representatives.
Biden used the Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization decision to motivate voters in the 2022 midterm elections, again promising to codify Roe. The slim Democratic majority in the Senate, however, has not been enough to overcome the filibuster.
Although Biden has been unable to fulfill the abortion rights legislative agenda promised on the campaign trail, he has attempted to use broad executive authority to back abortion rights and contraception access in a post-Dobbs climate.
Harris takes abortion rights on tour
As head of the Task Force on Reproductive Healthcare Access, Vice President Kamala Harris announced on Tuesday that she will be launching a national tour in January to highlight the harms of abortion bans in the wake of the Dobbs decision.
“Extremists across our country continue to wage a full-on attack against hard-won, hard-fought freedoms as they push their radical policies — from banning abortion in all 50 states and criminalizing doctors, to forcing women to travel out of state in order to get the care they need,” Harris said in a press statement.
Harris came under fire this fall for refusing to clarify whether or not she supported any gestational age limits for abortion, reiterating the talking point of legislating Roe-era protections but without addressing protections for viable babies.
Access to mifepristone
The Biden administration has redoubled its efforts to support access to the chemical abortion medication mifepristone and is preparing to argue the case against anti-abortion challengers before the Supreme Court next year.
The legal fight against mifepristone began in November 2022 when the Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine sued to reverse the Food and Drug Administration’s original approval for mifepristone from 2000.
The U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals in September upheld the original approval of the medication abortion agent, partially due to statute of limitations concerns, but the panel did challenge subsequent changes to the drug’s approval.
The Supreme Court announced on Dec. 13 that it would review the case, including the FDA’s decision to enable mifepristone access by mail by removing requirements for physicians to evaluate a patient before and after prescribing.
The White House said in June on the anniversary of the Dobbs decision that the administration “will continue to stand by FDA’s decades-old approval of the medication and by the FDA’s ability to review, approve, and regulate a wide range of prescription medications.”
Widening contraceptive access
Biden issued a third reproductive health executive order in June directing agencies to approve access and affordability of prescribed and over-the-counter contraception.
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The departments of Treasury, Labor, and Health and Human Services have taken joint steps this year to strengthen requirements for private insurance companies to cover contraception under Obamacare rules. The administration has also taken steps to increase access to contraception via Medicare, Medicaid, and military service member health plans.
Shortly after Biden’s executive order, the FDA approved the first over-the-counter hormonal birth control pill, which is expected to be in supermarkets, pharmacies, and online in 2024.