WASHINGTON (AP) – President Joe Biden on Wednesday signed an executive order aimed in part at making it easier for women seeking abortions to travel between states to obtain access to the procedure.
More specifically, one of the directives Biden will issue will allow states that have not outlawed abortion to apply for specific Medicaid waivers that would, in effect, help them treat women who have traveled from out of state.
The order will also call on health care providers to comply with federal nondiscrimination laws and streamline the collection of key data and information on maternal health at the National Institutes of Health and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The details were described by senior administration officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the executive order ahead of a formal announcement.
Biden described as a “health care crisis” the Supreme Court’s decision overturning the landmark 1973 ruling Roe vs. Wade, and “every part of the federal government does its part at this critical moment where women’s health and lives are on line.”
The order came one day after Kansas voters protected the right to abortion in the conservative state, an outcome that Biden celebrated.