U.S. President Joe Biden on Friday will sign an executive order designed to protect and expand access to contraception, after a Supreme Court ruling last year overturning the constitutional right to abortion raised fears that birth control could also face restrictions.
This is only meaningful to people on Medicare or Medicaid because Executive Orders only give the President the power to guide federal agencies (in the executive branch).
It's a rather meaningless gesture to be honest. If a President can do something via EO then another President can undo it just as easily.
From medicaid.gov "93,373,794 individuals were enrolled in Medicaid and CHIP in the 50 states and the District of Columbia that reported enrollment data for February 2023."
It also includes some of the most vulnerable and low income people in the country. People who cannot afford the care for a healthy pregnancy, let alone raising the resulting child(ren), and those who are in situations where they're at high risk of being raped, like the unhoused. Even if it doesn't affect my access, I'm pleased that the folks who need this coverage can access it.
An estimated 50% of those are women (who tend to benefit the most from easy contraception). Additionally, these individuals are often poorer, and, as a result, disproportionately of minority populations. Not only is it a fair number of people, but also the people that need the help the most.
It’s all he can do. Do you think the Republicans are going to accept that? How can they push back women’s rights to a point in which they were just baby machines that cooked if they can choose not to be pregnant?
He could be doing a lot more to make contraceptives and even abortion accessible on land under Federal Jurisdiction. He wants to play by the "rules" though.
There's nothing stopping him from using executive and federal power in this way except his own fears and a desire to be "normal" at a time when the United States teeters on complete backsliding to it's worst policies in history.
You're purposefully trying to downplay impact without any factual support. It's harder to take away benefits from people than it is to give them. Let the next R president (that of course won't win the popular vote) try to remove access and take that L with the centrist suburban swing state female voters that often influence elections.
This isn't an end all be all solution, but it's FAR from a meaningless gesture.
Factual support that executive orders are easy to undo? EOs aren’t law… they are orders to federal agencies on how they are to operate. It’s as easy as writing a letter and signing it..
he should be directing the DoE to be buying up as much privately-held student loans as possible, bringing them under federal control and thus more easily forgiven/repaid.