Democrats Demand Biden Declare Public Health Emergency Over Abortion Ruling

Multiple Democrats and liberal pundits demanded on TV and social media that President Joe Biden declare a public health emergency to preserve abortion access since Thursday.

“There’s no doubt it is an emergency for women all across the nation,” Democratic Gov. J.B. Pritzker of Illinois told CNN host Jake Tapper Sunday. “You know, seeking to protect, to exercise your reproductive rights should not be something that is difficult to do. It should not be something where if you can’t afford it, you may not be able to access it.”

Biden said Sunday he was considering declaring a public health emergency to ensure access to abortion even though some officials in the White House have questioned whether it would be legal, CBS News reported. The Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in June after upholding a Mississippi law in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization that banned most abortions after the 15th week of pregnancy.

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Democratic Rep. Cori Bush of Missouri also urged Biden to declare an emergency over the Dobbs ruling.

“The deadliest consequences of state abortion bans will harm Black women and pregnant people the most,” she said on Twitter.

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“The urgency of the moment demands unconventional approaches like declaring a public health emergency,” Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna of California tweeted.

“Of course POTUS has authority to declare a national public health emergency to reduce the carnage caused by SCOTUS in overruling Roe,” Harvard law professor Laurence Tribe posted on Twitter. “He should’ve done so last month. This isn’t a time for cautious waiting. It’s a break the glass moment.”

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“The National Emergencies Act of 1976 contains ample authority for the president to declare the threat to the lives and health of millions of American women to constitute a national public health emergency,” Tribe told the Daily Caller News Foundation when asked for comment.

The White House, Pritzker, Bush and Khanna did not immediately respond to requests for comment from the DCNF.