WASHINGTON — The Biden administration is discussing possible legal and policy options to respond to the Alabama Supreme Court’s ruling on in vitro fertilization and support affected Americans in Alabama, as well as other states where the Access to IVF could be at risk, according to administration officials familiar with the discussions.
The effort involves officials from the White House, the Justice Department and the Department of Health and Human Services, the officials said.
Discussions are in their early stages and no decisions have been made, officials said.
A source familiar with the discussions cautioned that the administration’s power to take executive action to protect access to IVF is limited and that much of the battle on this issue will be fought politically.
President Joe Biden’s aides are also considering how he can capitalize on the Alabama decision as he campaigns for reelection, including new ways of talking about reproductive rights that frame the issue as one that widely affects Americans. To that end, the officials said, the Biden team will begin referring to reproductive rights as a “family issue, not just women’s” and arguing that Republicans cannot make these decisions for “families “.
Officials said Biden now plans to address access to IVF, and the implications of Alabama’s decision, during his State of the Union address on March 7, with the possibility of the House Blanche to invite a guest affected by the decision to attend the speech. . Already, first lady Jill Biden will welcome Kate Cox, a 31-year-old Dallas mom who sued to terminate her nonviable pregnancy in Texas, as her guest for the State of the Union.
The rush to craft policy, legal and policy strategy in the wake of the Alabama decision underscores the extent to which the president’s aides believe access to reproductive rights could be decisive for the November election. Already, Biden aides had hatched plans to place abortion access at the heart of his campaign, while arguing that Republicans were trying to undermine Americans’ freedoms and placing the blame squarely on the former President Donald Trump, the Republican Party’s favorite in the polls. .
But before the Alabama decision, the White House had not developed a plan to respond if access to IVF was restricted by the courts, according to the source familiar with the administration’s discussions, although the vice-president President Kamala Harris said Thursday that “we knew that IVF was always on the table” since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. IVF. Wade in June 2022. And officials said the White House was not surprised by Alabama’s decision.
As administration officials study possible options, they remain in contact with stakeholders and advocates on the issue, particularly in Alabama. Similarly, the Biden campaign has worked with abortion rights groups Emily’s List and Reproductive Freedom for All on the issue, a campaign official said.
An administration official said IVF was included in some of the executive actions already taken by the Biden administration since the overturning of Roe v. Wade, such as protecting patient health information and strengthening protections for people helping patients travel for reproductive care.
To underscore the limits of possible executive action, officials noted that the administration could technically clarify the legal rights of providers and patients amid confusion over state laws, but that providers and patients may still be denied their rights if they live in a state where its law is not applicable. federally protected.
The Biden campaign, meanwhile, plans to aggressively highlight the personal stories of Americans affected by Alabama’s decision and use the campaign’s surrogate network to keep this issue in the spotlight.
There are active discussions about how senior officials, particularly Harris, can communicate publicly on the issue.
The White House and the Biden campaign are also closely monitoring abortion ban cases in Florida and Georgia and preparing to respond as soon as decisions are made in the coming days, officials said.
