The Biden administration is considering setting up abortion providers on federal land in red states, Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra said Tuesday.
The administration has not decided yet whether it will pursue the plan, which is favored by left-wing legislators Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortes (D-NY) and Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), but Becerra said that “every option is on the table.”
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“What I can tell you is that we are aware of a number of ideas and proposals, many of which we have been considering internally ourselves,” Becerra said. “We have made no decisions yet. We certainly would have a conversation with the president to make sure we implement his directives to us in trying to protect women’s reproductive healthcare services.”
Becerra’s comments are at odds with those of Vice President Kamala Harris, who said just Monday that the administration was not discussing clinics on federal lands.
The proposal, if pursued by the administration, would offer women a safe haven for abortion access in red states, most of which have already curtailed access. President Joe Biden is fairly limited in his ability to restore the right to an abortion, short of issuing executive orders that could be overturned by the next administration.
But progressives Warren and AOC are urging the president to take more steps to aid women living in GOP-led states who do not have the means to travel to a state that has protected the right to an abortion. AOC called erecting abortion sites on federal lands “the babiest of the babiest of the baby steps” that the administration could take.
Warren, meanwhile, pushed for it as a possible solution on Monday when speaking to constituents in Massachusetts.
”The federal government needs to be exploring what they can do to make federal lands available to help ensure access to abortion,” she said.
Becerra outlined several other measures the administration is taking to sure up access to abortion. He pledged to use his authority as head of HHS to preserve access to the abortion-inducing medications mifepristone and misoprostol, a goal that the Biden administration had already announced. Current federal law requires government health programs to offer medication to induce an abortion in certain instances, such as when the pregnancy is a result of rape or incest, or if the life of the mother is put at risk.
“Medication abortion has been approved by the FDA for years and is safe for patients. It is the gold standard for care when someone who’s pregnant experiences a miscarriage, which is all too real for many expectant mothers across the country,” Becerra said. “Working to increase access to this drug is a national imperative and in the public interest.”
Becerra added that the Office for Civil Rights within HHS would protect patients seeking abortions from discrimination and keep medical records private. The department will also take steps to ensure that healthcare providers maintain their authority to determine whether an abortion is necessary to save a woman’s life, a condition that doctors in red states are afraid of violating even when using their best clinical judgment.
Becerra further directed the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, which have jurisdiction over federal healthcare programs, to ensure that enrollees are able to access family planning services such as emergency contraception and long-acting reversible contraception such as IUDs.
“As part of these efforts, we will make clear that family planning providers are able to participate in the Medicaid program,” which covers very poor Americans, Becerra said.
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The Supreme Court’s decision on Friday to uphold Mississippi’s 15-week abortion ban, in doing so, overturning the 49-year-old constitutional guarantee for abortion, sent the power of regulating access to the procedure back to the states. But abortion is not federally illegal.
“We know that there is misinformation out there about what the Supreme Court did. we want to make sure it’s clear that Americans didn’t lose every right they have. Americans still can assert their rights and we will do everything we can to protect you,” Becerra said.
