Pro-life leader says executive order is effort ‘to appease abortion lobby’

President Joe Biden signs an executive order at the White House in Washington July 8, 2022, that he said would help safeguard women’s access to abortion and contraceptives. He stated the order was a necessary response to the Supreme Court’s June 24 decision overturning the court’s 1973 Roe v. Wade decision that legalized abortion nationwide. The high court’s ruling sends the abortion issue back to the states. Pictured with Biden are Vice President Kamala Harris, left, Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra and . Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco. CNS photo/Kevin Lamarque, Reuters

A national pro-life leader said President Joe Biden’s July 8 executive order on abortion “confirmed the White House is working to appease the abortion lobby to the detriment of women and their unborn children.”

“On no other issue, from inflation to high gas prices, have President Biden and pro-abortion Democrats put forward so much effort as they have on abortion,” said Carol Tobias, president of National Right to Life.

Biden “seems to think that Americans’ problems can only be solved by killing (the nation’s) children by abortion,” she said.

Before signing his executive order, Biden condemned what he called the “extreme” Supreme Court majority for overturning Roe v. Wade.

The court’s June 24 ruling came in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, a challenge to a Mississippi law banning abortion after 15 weeks.

In affirming the law 6-3, the high court also voted 5-4 to overturn 1973’s Roe v. Wade ruling, which legalized abortion nationwide, and 1992’s Casey v. Planned Parenthood ruling, which affirmed Roe.

The ruling sends the issue of abortion back to the states.

“It’s outrageous. I don’t care what your position is, it’s outrageous and it’s dangerous,” said Biden, a Catholic who supports legal abortion. He said his executive order was a necessary response to the ruling.

Provisions of his order include safeguarding access to medication abortion and emergency contraception, protecting patient privacy, launching public education efforts as well as strengthening “the security of and the legal options available to those seeking and providing abortion services.”

Biden urged Americans upset by the decision to “vote, vote, vote, vote” in November to elect lawmakers who will back a law codifying Roe.

He called the Dobbs decision an “exercise in raw political power,” but in writing for the majority, Justice Samuel Alito said, “The Constitution makes no reference to abortion, and no such right is implicitly protected by any constitutional provision.”

“The Biden administration and congressional Democrats continue to promote abortion up until birth,” said Tobias. “Despite the rhetoric, nothing this administration does is going to help women and their unborn children.”

She also took issue with a scenario Biden laid out in remarks he made before signing the executive order. He said a woman facing “a life-threatening miscarriage” who goes to the emergency room will be denied care because doctors and hospital lawyers will fear they will be penalized for helping her now that Roe has been overturned.

“Misinformation and deceptive statements permeated the president’s speech today,” said Tobias, noting that pro-life legislation “explicitly makes clear that treatment for miscarriages does not fall under the legal meaning of abortion.”

In addition, she said, no law exists that outlaws the treatment of ectopic pregnancies.

She added that “the pro-life movement is vehemently opposed to women being prosecuted for having or seeking an abortion. An open letter to state legislators stating the opposition of the movement to the prosecution of women was signed by over 70 pro-life groups.”