According to United Press International, recent news reported that Justice Department has announced that they have launched a new task force. It has dedicated to protect the reproductive healthcare as Republican-led states has banned abortion.
Associate Attorney General Vanita Gupta will serve as the chairperson of the Reproductive Rights Task Force, which has the mandate to investigate whether or not state and local restrictions on abortion go too far.
In a statement, the Justice Department explained that some of the actions it will be looking for include those that restrict a woman’s ability to seek reproductive care and a person’s ability to inform others about such services, as well as bans on drugs that induce abortions and the imposition of criminal or civil penalties on federal employees who provide legal reproductive health services. In addition, the Justice Department will be looking for actions that restrict a person’s ability to inform others about such services.
Officials have stated that the task force formalises months of work that has been conducted behind the scenes at the Justice Department in order to identify ways to protect access to abortion in anticipation of the landmark 1973 Supreme Court ruling of Roe vs. Wade being overturned — which the high court did at the end of last month.
In a video message, Gupta referred to the decision as “devastating,” and he stated that the task force will investigate “every legal option to protect and provide comprehensive reproductive health services” in collaboration with reproductive rights organisations, patients, law firms, and other stakeholders.
She stated that the court had violated the constitution by denying women the ability to make their own decisions over their bodies, their health, and their futures. “The court revoked a basic right,” she said. “Although we acknowledge that action from Congress is the most effective solution, we will not be deterred from utilising every instrument at our disposal to safeguard reproductive freedom.”
Justice Department Announces Reproductive Rights Task Force
The Task Force Formalizes the Department’s Ongoing Work to Protect Reproductive Freedom Under Federal Lawhttps://t.co/X1ob7dM92Q pic.twitter.com/xM02cnIr5a
— Justice Department (@TheJusticeDept) July 12, 2022
The statement was made a few days after President Joe Biden had announced an executive order that aimed to protect access to abortion while also directing prosecutors in the Justice Department to “do everything in their power to protect these women seeking to invoke their right” to reproductive healthcare. The executive order was aimed at protecting access to abortion.
On Friday, Vice President Joe Biden delivered remarks from the Roosevelt Room in the White House, during which he stated that federal prosecutors will try to defend abortion clinics from intimidation in areas where such facilities are still operational. They will protect the rights of women to travel from a state in which abortion is illegal to a state in which it is not illegal in order to seek medical attention. Additionally, they will protect a woman’s right to medication that has been approved by the Food and Drug Administration of the United States.
He issued a warning that Republican legislators have taken the decision of the conservative-leaning Supreme Court to overturn federal abortion laws as a “green light” to seek a national ban on abortion. The Supreme Court has a history of leaning conservative.
A total of 26 states are either certain or likely to move to prohibit the medical procedure of abortion, according to the Guttmacher Institute, which is a sexual and reproductive health and rights institute. Thirteen states had so-called trigger abortion bans in place in anticipation of Roe vs. Wade being overturned, and the Guttmacher Institute has judged that a total of 26 states will move to prohibit the medical procedure of abortion.
Planned Parenthood Federation President and Chief Executive Officer Alexis McGill Johnson referred to the establishment of the task force as “a meaningful step in providing a framework for enforcing federal protection for those helping patients navigate access to abortion.” This statement was made in response to the formation of the task force.
Johnson said in a statement that they are looking forward to seeing the work of the committee “soon take form.”
Following the overturning of Roe v. Wade and in the wake of the criticism that Biden has received from members of his Democratic Party as well as activists for not taking more active steps to defend access to abortion, Biden has taken these actions.
Biden has stated on multiple occasions that the only way to guarantee access to abortion on a nationwide scale is to enshrine it in federal law, and he has urged the general people to cast their vote in November for candidates who will support such a legislation.
On Sunday, he declared, “My ultimate aim is to reinstall Roe v. Wade as the national law by passing it in the United States Congress.” This is his plan to make Roe v. Wade the rule of the land once again.
