HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra vowed Tuesday to increase access to chemical abortion in the wake of the Dobbs ruling overturning Roe v. Wade.
The Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization was “despicable,” Becerra said, pledging to make expanding access to abortion a priority.
The Biden Administration’s Department of Health and Human Services “has been preparing for this for some time,” Becerra said, and is, “keeping all options on the table,” National Review reports.
Becerra did not say outright that HHS would take part in mailing abortion pills to states where chemical abortion is illegal, the report said, but he told reporters to “stay tuned” on the possibility. U.S. law bans federal dollars from funding abortion and from mailing abortion pills between states.
Becerra’s comments came at a press conference Tuesday after the HHS Secretary hinted at by-passing the Hyde Amendment at another event on Monday, the National Review report said. Hyde is the specific legislative provision preventing federal funds from going toward abortion.
Becerra had said the day before that HHS might facilitate in helping women seeking abortions to travel out of states that prohibit it into states with more lax abortion laws.
The press asked Becerra if this would be consistent with U.S. law, to which he grinned and responded, “talk to me later.”
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Becerra said that chemical abortion was “critical.”
He claimed the abortion pill was safe and the “gold standard” in care for women experiencing miscarriage.
HHS will work with the U.S. attorney general and the Justice Department to try blocking states from banning chemical abortion, he said, “based on a disagreement with the FDA’s expert judgment about the drug’s safety and efficacy.”
Becerra also pledged to give “guidance” to U.S. medical providers “to ensure they receive accurate and robust information on medication abortion.”
Becerra has a decades-long record of rabid pro-abortion activism in office from his time as a congressman and attorney general for California to serving in the Biden administration.
Pregnancy help advocates criticized Becerra’s take on the abortion pill and safety this week, along with his flippancy regarding HHS potentially having a hand in moving women across state lines to procure chemical abortion.
“His words are a complete set of falsehood to the American people regarding the safety and necessity of chemical abortion,” said Christa Brown, Heartbeat International’s director of Medical Impact. “They reflect a plan by this administration to continue the expansion of Big Abortion at any cost, even at the expense women's health.”
“These drugs are not critical or safe,” Brown said. “They have never been the "gold standard" in healthcare as he claims, they are simply the gold standard for those profiting in the abortion industry.”
Heartbeat International is the largest network of pregnancy help in the U.S. and world. In her role, Brown, a nurse, oversees the hotline for Heartbeat’s Abortion Pill Rescue® Network (APRN), which sees roughly 150 women per month seeking Abortion Pill Reversal.
“The truth is that there are many other options for women facing these challenging circumstances rather than to take dangerous drugs to end a pregnancy,” Brown said.
She countered Becerra’s assertion that women need chemical abortion, and that no safety issues exist with the chemical abortion regimen.
“Although he calls chemical abortion "critical" and "safe for patients," the truth is there are many physical and emotional risks not often shared with patients,” Brown said.
“There are four times the risk of complications with chemical abortion as compared with surgical abortion, according to recent studies,” she said.
“There are literally thousands of adverse events,” Brown said. “There are severe side effects, including heavy bleeding, intense pain, and death reported. And there was an increase in emergency-room-visit rates for women taking abortion pills of 507-percent between 2002 and 2015.”
The chemical abortion rate continues to rise, surpassing surgical abortion to comprise more than half of the abortions committed in the U.S.
The abortion pill, also known as medical abortion, chemical abortion, self-managed, DIY, or at-home abortion, is the two-drug process that includes mifepristone, which blocks the effects of progesterone, the natural hormone in a woman’s body necessary to sustain pregnancy, followed a day or so later by the second drug, misoprostol, which causes the mother to go into labor and deliver her deceased child.
The Biden administration permanently rescinded the longstanding federal safety protocol requiring that chemical abortion drugs be administered in person last December.
The FDA's REMS (Risk Evaluation Management Strategy) has been in place for the abortion pill since its release in 2000 and has required the abortion drugs only be prescribed by a certified health-care provider and dispensed in a clinic, hospital, or medical office. An in-person exam by a physician is necessary to properly determine the gestation of a woman's pregnancy, and to also screen for ectopic pregnancy, as well as for other conditions - all significant factors in ensuring the woman's safety.
The removal of the in-person dispensing requirement ultimately means women can obtain abortion drugs through the mail without important medical oversight to keep them safe – and be preyed upon by groups selling the drugs over the internet, often illegally.
The Supreme Court released the Dobbs ruling June 24, overturning the 1973 Roe decision along with the subsequent 1992 Planned Parenthood v. Casey ruling. The Dobbs case outcome was anticipated after a May 2 leak of a draft majority opinion indicating the Court was poised to overturn Casey and Roe.
Since the Dobbs draft leak and release of the final decision, pro-life supporters have rejoiced after 50 years of advocacy, and abortion supporters have raged, often engaging in threats, violence, harassment, and vandalism. There have been numerous calls for the federal government to address the pro-abortion terrorism.
Life states in the U.S. have sought to prepare abortion restrictions if Roe would fall, and abortion states have conversely moved to codify abortion in state law.
This is paving the way for abortion tourism where abortion states welcome out of state visits to procure the procedure, and dozens of pro-abortion companies pledging to subsidize employees’ abortion travel.
It has also raised the question of whether and how abortion proponents might circumvent laws in life states to illicitly provide abortion.
Heartbeat International General Legal Counsel Danielle White noted that the pregnancy help community remains available with support for women facing unplanned pregnancy.
“The pregnancy help movement is alive and working hard every day in every state to provide hope and help to every woman experiencing an unexpected pregnancy so that she does not ever become so desperate that she crosses state lines for an abortion,” White said.
She panned the suggestion that the Biden-Becerra HHS could circumvent the laws of individual U.S. states to push the abortion pill.
“The Supreme Court was very clear in its ruling in Dobbs that states are free to form their own laws regarding abortion,” While said. “The federal government shipping drugs that a state has criminalized into that state clearly runs counter to that ruling.”
“I would expect such an unprecedented and desperate action to face a steep uphill battle in court,” she added. “By his glib remarks, it’s evident that Mr. Becerra expects that as well.”
Becerra’s nomination for HHS secretary was roundly opposed by pro-life advocates who denounced his “vehement” and “aggressive” support for abortion, and expressed grave concern about his opposition to conscience rights and hostility toward religious freedom related to abortion and contraception.
He was the defendant as California AG in the NIFLA v. Becerra case where he sought to force pro-life pregnancy help organizations to intentionally refer pregnant women to abortion facilities.
Becerra resumed felony charges brought by his predecessor as California’s attorney general against the Center for Medical Progress (CMP) for exposing Planned Parenthood’s role in the harvest and trafficking of baby body parts.
Brown cautioned against increased abortion pill access without medical oversight.
“There is no focus on the safety of women,” she said.
“These drugs are truly dangerous,” Brown said. “Expanding access without prior medical assessment or availability of a local provider, increases the risk to women. Not only will children continue to die under the guise of "healthcare" but so will more women.”
Editor's note: Heartbeat International manages the Abortion Pill Rescue® Network (APRN) and Pregnancy Help News.
