At Presidential Women’s Center, we are eager to see what the Biden administration will do to protect reproductive rights. We know that Biden committed to protecting reproductive rights during the election and one of the first acts he followed though with was to rescind Trump’s Global Gag Rule, a rule that banned overseas groups from receiving any U.S. funding if they provided abortion services.
While reversing bad policies is a great start, we need to see more protections for people who need access to reproductive healthcare. Several Democratic senators are pushing for the creation of a new department that would be solely dedicated to reproductive healthcare. The goal of this new department would be to “more holistically address the human right to maintain personal bodily autonomy”. The office, entitled the” Office of Sexual and Reproductive Health and Wellbeing” would develop a federal strategy to promote equal access to reproductive health and would also coordinate the departments who already impact sexual and reproductive health and wellbeing.
In addition to the “global gag rule”, the Trump administration also imposed a “domestic gag rule” that impacted reproductive health care here in the United States. The “domestic gag rule” blocked federal family planning dollars from going to organizations that provide abortions. This had a significant impact on women who have been unable to access birth control as a result of the rule.
Fortunately, President Biden has initiated the first steps to undo this harmful rule. Unfortunately, this rule cannot be rescinded by executive action, it must go through a regulatory process. We are still waiting for this process to be completed and it appears that it may take some time.
Presidential Women’s Center is always here to support your reproductive health care needs. We will continue to listen and watch to see what the Biden Administration will do next….Stay tuned…….