Biden Administration Launches Website To Help Women Find Abortion Providers

The Biden administration, as part of a campaign of resistance to Friday’s ruling by the Supreme Court returning the abortion question to Congress and state legislatures, is launching a program that uses federal resources to help women find abortion providers.The program is being run by the Department of Health and Human Services, which has put up a website that redirects users to a legal abortion search tool. The link has been shared on social media by the White House and prominent Democrats, including Vice President Harris, Senator Feinstein, and Representative Janice Schakowsky.“Reproductive health care, including access to birth control and safe and legal abortion care, is an essential part of your health and well-being,” the website reads. “While Roe v. Wade was overturned, abortion remains legal in many states, and other reproductive health care services remain protected by law.”The website goes up as a cataract of harsh language about the Supreme Court ruling comes from Biden administration officials. On Friday, the secretary of health and human services, Xavier Becerra, called the Supreme Court’s ruling in Dobbs vs. Jackson Women’s Health Organization “unconscionable.” The landmark ruling on Friday, dismissing the idea of a constitutional right to abortion, overturned Roe v. Wade and allowed states legislatures to regulate pregnancy terminations. In his statement, Mr. Becerra called abortion “a basic and essential part of health care.” He vowed that HHS would “double down and use every lever we have to protect access to abortion care.”Under a menu option titled “Your Right to Access Abortion Services,” HHS provides information on how to find and fund a legal abortion — via a website called “AbortionFinder.org.” The site is a search engine for legal abortions. A user enters her age, location, and date of last menstrual period. She is given a list of the closest legal abortion providers. In the aftermath of Friday’s decision, at least nine states have already banned abortions, and an additional 12 states have laws designed to trigger restrictions that will go into effect after certain procedural requirements are met — limiting or banning abortions.Women in Oklahoma, where abortion is now practically outlawed, will be referred to clinics in surrounding states where abortion is still legal — nearby Kansas, Louisiana, and Nebraska, among others.Abortion Finder is not operated by the United States government but by a nonprofit organization, Power to Decide, which describes itself as “the campaign to prevent unplanned pregnancy.” A spokeswoman for Power to Decide, Paloma Zuleta, describes the website, which was founded in 2020, as “our baby.”The website’s traffic has shot up in the aftermath of Friday’s decision. On Thursday, about 10,000 people visited the site, and on Friday the number was 136,000, according to Ms. Zuleta. “It’s never been more important for people to have services like this for programs they need,” she said.Ms. Zuleta said she wasn’t sure how HHS chose to feature Abortion Finder on reproductiverights.gov. Her colleague, Rachel Perrone, noted that the government likely chose it because “it’s the most comprehensive network of its kind.” HHS’s Office on Women’s Health, which was founded in 1991 to “improve the health of U.S. women by advancing and coordinating a comprehensive women’s health agenda,” also directs women toward the abortion finder tool.Currently, on the Office on Women’s Health website, womenshealth.gov, visitors are greeted by a banner reading “Know Your Rights: Reproductive Health Care.” The banner redirects visitors to reproductiverights.gov, which provides information on procuring birth control, abortion, and “other preventative health services” — such as Pap smears and breast exams.“Taking the life of another human being is not a health issue,” the president of the National Right to Life Coalition, Carol Tobias, says. “These are living members of the human family, and you don’t end the life and say it’s a healthcare issue.” Ms. Tobias sees this website as part of the Biden administration’s “whole-of-government effort” on abortion, which the president first outlined in October 2021, when the Supreme Court denied a bid to block abortion restrictions in Texas.Mr. Biden “called for a ‘whole-of-government’ approach to find ways that they can keep access to abortion available,” Ms. Tobias says. “This is an administration that refuses to consider alternatives.” Ms. Tobias advocates for programs that address women’s gestational and postpartum health and wellbeing. “Many of the states have come forward with programs to help both mom and baby with healthcare following the birth, making sure that she knows all the different resources that are available from both the public and private sector,” Ms. Tobias says. “And I would certainly hope and expect some more states to do more along those lines.”“The pro-life movement knows we have a lot of work to do,” she adds.The Department of Health and Human Services declined to comment. Mr. Becerra, though, is scheduled to host a press conference tomorrow at HHS “to unveil an action plan at President Biden’s direction” in response to the court’s decision.

Biden Administration Launches Website To Help Women Find Abortion Providers

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