Joe Biden signs executive order protecting travel for abortion

Joe Biden signs executive order protecting travel for abortion
August 4, 2022, 9:52 am

U.S. President Joe Biden signed legislation Tuesday afternoon to make lynching a federal hate crime for the first time in American history (File photo: Kamala Harris official Facebook page)

US President Joe Biden on Wednesday (August 3) signed a second executive order aimed at protecting abortion rights, the i24 news reported, citing Reuters.

The order asks the federal health department to consider allowing Medicaid funds to be used to help facilitate out-of-state travel for abortions, according to the report.

Like Biden's first order signed in July, it addresses the recent Supreme Court decision to end the nationwide constitutional right to abortion.

However, it is expected to have limited impact as US Republicans push a wave of laws restricting abortion, access to medication and funding for abortion services.

This comes a day after Kansas voters rejected efforts to remove abortion protections from the state's constitution. The vote was a resounding win for the abortion rights movement in the first statewide electoral test since the Supreme Court ruling.

Abortion-rights demonstrators march through the streets of Belfast ahead of a meeting of the Stormont Assembly on abortion rights and gay marriage on October 21, 2019 in Belfast, United Kingdom. © Charles McQuillan/Getty Images

Biden said, according to Reuters: "I don't think the court has any notion for that matter or the Republican party for that matter... how women are going to respond. They don't have a clue about the power of American women."

"Last night in Kansas, they found out," he continued, calling the results a "decisive victory" that sent a "powerful signal."

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"This fight is not over, and we saw that last night in Kansas," Biden said. He said that the Supreme Court "practically dared women in this country go to the ballot box and restore the right to choose" that it had just stripped away.

Biden's order in July directed the federal government's health department to expand access to medication abortion and ensure that women who travel for abortions are protected.

The latest measure asks the Health and Human Services Department to consider using funds, including Medicaid, the federal and state-funded insurance program it oversees, to support low-income women traveling out of state for abortion services, a senior administration official said.

Source: i24news

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