HHS secretary vows abortion rights support
SAN DIEGO — HHS will continue to support abortion rights in the country in the wake of a possible landmark Supreme Court decision, according to HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra.
Delivering one of two keynote speeches at the ACOG Annual Clinical & Scientific Meeting, Becerra took time to discuss a recent report claiming the Supreme Court is set to overturn the landmark Roe vs. Wade decision.
“We are in a time when we have to do things slightly differently, and if you’ve kept up with the news over the last week or so on where the Supreme Court of the United States of America may go, then you really have a sense that this is not normal,” he told the crowd. “It is not normal in America to believe that you will have to make reference to a penal code book before you make reference to a medical book. It is not normal that you will have to seek counsel from your counsel so that you can then counsel your patient.”
The Supreme Court’s final decision and opinions have not yet been released; however, the leak of Justice Samuel Alito’s draft opinion signals the possibility that abortion rights could be sent back to the state level, and this possibility has shifted discourse.
“Nothing has changed in terms of the law, but everything has changed in terms of the environment,” Becerra said. “There’s a generation — probably two generations — of Americans who don’t know what it’s like not to have Roe.”
Becerra went on to champion medical professionals’ right to use their education and professional expertise to assist their patients in making the right decisions for their own lives and well-being. He also pledged that the HHS would continue to provide and expand resources for family planning and maternal health care.
He ended with a call to action for ACOG members, regardless of political affiliation or abortion and contraception ideologies, to protect the rights of pregnant individuals to make their own decisions.
“It will be up to us. It’s on you, because if there’s anyone who knows what this could mean, it’s you,” he said. “You know the consequences of telling a woman that she cannot access the best medical care we know is available for her, and that just cannot stand.”