Washington, Aug 26 (Globe Live Media) – The Government of the United States headed by Joe Biden warned this Friday the governors of the states that are restricting abortion that they must allow this practice when the life of the mother is at risk.
The Secretary of Health, Xavier Becerra, sent a letter to the governors reminding them that the laws they approve must comply with federal standards that guarantee the protection of women’s health.
Since the United States Supreme Court struck down the constitutional protection of the right to abortion in force since 1973, many conservative states have rushed to pass laws that restrict and even prohibit it, also in cases of incest or rape.
Given these actions, the Biden government recently approved a rule that obliges all states —regardless of the law they have regarding abortion— to allow interruptions of pregnancy in the event of a medical emergency.
The letter thus warns that “current or future laws restricting abortion do not end the responsibility that physicians have to provide access to emergency health care,” according to federal law, the White House explained in a statement.
The letter also asks the governors of the states that have not restricted abortion to provide facilities for access to women from territories in which this reproductive right has been limited or prohibited.
The US Department of Health (HHS, English) also developed an action plan “in response to the decision of the Supreme Court”, a guide that invites states to extend access to women from other territories who want to travel to receive treatments that are denied to them in their place of residence.
“Since the Supreme Court’s decision, we have known hard stories of women who do not have access to the care they need due to the new abortion restriction laws, and we have seen legislative chambers that try to confuse women by saying that they protect them while making abortion a crime. abortion,” Becerra lamented.
The Secretary of Health promised that his department will continue to take “concrete measures such as today’s invitation to governors to protect women’s access to reproductive care, including abortion.”
On the other hand, the White House spokeswoman, Karine Jean-Pierre, lamented in a statement the entry into force of new laws that practically prohibit abortion in Idaho, Oklahoma, Tennessee and Texas and that “criminalize” it without exceptions, nor even for cases of rape or incest.
It is, the spokeswoman said, “the latest attack on the fundamental rights of Americans” and is part of the Republican Party’s effort to “roll back the freedoms” that the country had for half a century.
“Congress should act immediately to restore the protection of ‘Roe v. Wade’ (the ruling that guaranteed the right to abortion in 1973) and the American people should make their voices heard,” Jean-Pierre said in a message to the mid-term elections in November.