The order directs agencies to consider actions to increase access to contraceptives over the counter, including emergency contraceptives that induce an abortion. According to a White House news release, the Biden administration is suggesting discussions with pharmacies, employers, and insurers and then providing guidance to support more over-the-counter access.
Some aspects of the executive order will also address Medicare and Medicaid. The order directs the Department of Health and Human services to consider actions to improve coverage for contraceptives through Medicare Advantage and Medicare Part D Plans. It also directs the department to consider actions to expand access to family planning services and supplies through Medicaid.
The executive order further asks agencies to consider actions that would increase access to contraception for veterans, federal workers, private employees, and students through health care plans.
Another part of the executive order directs Health and Human Services to research additional ways to expand access to contraceptives.
Biden, the nation’s second Catholic president, has signed a handful of executive orders geared toward expanding access to abortion and contraception, including abortion-inducing drugs. The administration has also defended the use of mifepristone amid a federal lawsuit, which is a drug that can kill an unborn child up to 10 weeks of pregnancy. The Catechism of the Catholic Church calls abortion a “moral evil” (No. 2271) and the use of contraceptives “intrinsically evil” (No. 2370).
“This will be the third executive order on reproductive health care access that the president has signed since the Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, and the first focused specifically on protecting and expanding access to contraception,” the White House statement read.
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