Joe Biden May Issue Public Health Emergency: We’re Not Killing Enough Babies in Abortions

National   |   Micaiah Bilger   |   Jan 31, 2023   |   10:51AM   |   Washington, DC

Joe Biden may soon declare a public health emergency for abortion, apparently thinking there are not enough babies dying in abortions.

Such an order could allow the Biden administration to expand the killing of unborn babies even more through taxpayer funding, “accelerated access” to abortion drugs, the deployment of Public Health Services Corps teams and more, Axios reports.

This week, HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra told Axios that his health department is evaluating the possibility.

“There are discussions on a wide range of measures … that we can take to try to protect people’s rights,” Becerra said Monday. “There are certain criteria that you look for to be able to declare a public health emergency. That’s typically done by scientists and those that are professionals in those fields who will tell us whether we are in a state of emergency and based on that, I have the ability to make a declaration.”

The pro-abortion movement has been urging the Biden administration to declare a public health emergency for abortion ever since news leaked last year that the U.S. Supreme Court would overturn Roe v. Wade. As a result of the Dobbs v. Jackson ruling in June, 14 states now protect unborn babies from abortion and more are fighting in court to do the same. Pro-life leaders estimate tens of thousands of unborn babies’ lives already have been saved.

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Meanwhile, the Biden administration and Democrat leaders have been working aggressively to thwart these life-saving efforts by ending long-standing safety requirements for abortion drugs and allowing pharmacies to sell them.

But the administration has expressed hesitancy about an emergency declaration because it could run into legal trouble. Pro-life state leaders almost certainly would sue, and Mary Ziegler, a law professor who specializes in the abortion issue at the University of California Davis, said their lawsuits likely would succeed.

“It would be hard to imagine a federal court challenge to that … ending well for the administration, but by the same token, it might have some value in the short term,” Ziegler told Axios.

But abortion activists believe an emergency health declaration would give the federal government more power to expand the killing of unborn babies, such as allowing abortionists to practice on federally-governed military bases in pro-life states and shielding “doctors from legal liability for treating patients in a state where they are not licensed,” the New York Times reported last year.

Months ago, Democrats in Congress sent letters to Biden recommending other ways to expand abortions by executive order. Their ideas include providing taxpayer-funded vouchers and other resources for women who travel across state lines for abortions, and creating a new “reproductive health ombudsman” in the Department of Health and Human Services to “educate” the public and analyze data about abortion.

Responding last July, Jen Klein, director of the White House Gender Policy Council, said they researched the possibility and learned that it probably would not be effective in expanding abortions.

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

White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre also has admitted that Biden cannot do much to expand abortions without the approval of Congress.

For nearly 50 years under Roe, abortions destroyed more than 64 million unborn babies in abortions. Only now that Roe has been overturned may states again protect the right to life for all human beings, born and unborn.

Two new polls show growing public support for legal protections for unborn babies. A Marist College poll found 69 percent of Americans support limiting or banning abortions, up from 62 percent in June. Another new poll from UMass Amherst found a 5-percent drop in those who say Congress should pass a law to make abortions legal nation-wide and a 6-percent increase in support for a national abortion ban, WCVB News reports.