“A lot of what the Biden administration could do would be window dressing, in that ultimately we’re going to have a system of conflicting access to reproductive health and rights depending upon the state you live in,” said Lawrence Gostin, the director of the O’Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law at Georgetown Law, who has been advising the White House on its options. “And there’s very little that Biden can do about that.”
Biden officials spent much of Tuesday panicked as they realized how few tools they had at their disposal, according to one outside adviser briefed on several meetings. Now officials are fervently debating a number of executive and regulatory actions the administration could take to make it easier for women in red states — particularly poor women — to access abortion care, according to three outside advisers.
But officials privately recognize that nearly any administrative action would face legal challenges from Republican attorneys general, and that many of those challenges could succeed. Even if they don’t, they could tie up the action for months.
Join the conversation as a VIP Member