Biden could declare a public health emergency to expand abortion

President Joe Biden is weighing whether to declare a public health emergency to expand access to abortion after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, though some White House officials have say it’s not the best option to help women with unwanted pregnancies.

Biden told reporters on Sunday he asked U.S. health officials to look at whether the administration has the legal authority to declare a public health emergency to protect abortion access and what the impact would be if he used those emergency powers. Jen Klein, director of the White House Gender Policy Council, said the administration hasn’t used these powers yet because they wouldn’t bring much more legal or financial power to address abortion access.

“When we looked at the public health emergency, we learned a couple things.  One is that it doesn’t free very many resources. It’s what’s in the public health emergency fund, and there’s very little money — tens of thousands of dollars in it,” Klein told reporters on Friday.  “So that didn’t seem like a great option.  And it also doesn’t release a significant amount of legal authority. And so that’s why we haven’t taken that action.”

But the nation’s leading reproductive rights groups are calling for the White House to use every power at its disposal to defend access to abortion. In a statement to CNBC, Planned Parenthood said the Biden administration should immediately declare a public health emergency.

“We are in a national health crisis,” said Laurel Sakai, Planned Parenthood’s public policy head. “That’s why the administration should use all the emergency and disaster authorities and tools available to them, including immediately declaring a public health emergency.”

Pressure for the administration to do more is also building in Congress. More than 80 House Democrats, in a letter this week, called on Biden and Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra to use their emergency public health powers to address what they called “a full-scale reproductive health crisis across our nation” that “threatens patients’ lives.”

An HHS spokesperson, when asked whether the agency is considering declaring a public health emergency for abortion, said the department is “exploring many options” and assessing “what’s possible, in consultation with leading experts at the department.”

James Hodge, one of the nation’s leading experts on public health law at Arizona State University, disagreed with White House officials, though he said there are legal and political risks in tapping emergency powers to protect abortion rights.

“There are real definitive legal things that could be triggered by that specific public health emergency declaration,”…