Biden considers declaring public health emergency to increase abortion access

Joe Biden
(Image credit: Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

President Biden said Sunday he might declare a public health emergency to allow federal resources to be used to increase abortion access in the wake of the Supreme Court's decision overturning Roe v. Wade (1973) and returning the issue of abortion to the states.

The White House has said it doesn't see an emergency declaration as "a great option," but Biden said it was important for abortion-rights advocates to do whatever they can to counter the decision as red states impose new abortion bans or tighten restrictions.

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Harold Maass, The Week US

Harold Maass is a contributing editor at The Week. He has been writing for The Week since the 2001 debut of the U.S. print edition and served as editor of TheWeek.com when it launched in 2008. Harold started his career as a newspaper reporter in South Florida and Haiti. He has previously worked for a variety of news outlets, including The Miami Herald, ABC News and Fox News, and for several years wrote a daily roundup of financial news for The Week and Yahoo Finance.