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.”
Seems like a fair number of people.
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.
Another 63 million on Medicare and yet it’s still a bandaid on a gaping wound that might get ripped off any minute.
Still worth doing IMO
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.
Executive power is very dangerous. Just look what happened when control of the internet was given to the FCC in the name of net neutrality. Executive orders are how the US ends up with a dictator.
A shame Obama didn’t act when he had a supermajority, but he didn’t. He was too busy making health care even more expensive.
Why are we relying on politicians to help out our neighbors?
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…
Here is a list of things Biden did on day 1.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/rachelsandler/2021/01/20/here-are-all-the-actions-biden-took-on-his-first-day-in-office/
Here is one of the day 1 EOs undoing Trumps previous orders
https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2021/01/25/2021-01767/revocation-of-certain-executive-orders-concerning-federal-regulation
No… I was obviously referring to you providing no support of your claim that this will have little/no impact. As others have rightly pointed out, this will impact about 100 million Americans for the next year+ at least. An EO is permission for government workers to do more. It’s guidance for regulatory agencies and lawyers to show teeth with the full support of the white house. It does mean something, it’s also not a magic pen and paper. But many are better off today than they were yesterday and hopefully that increases with time.
Nobody claimed this was the one single and final fix for every one of the ills of society, but that seems to be the strawman you’re responding to.
I’ve made no such claim…
A meaningless gesture is a statement intended to make you feel better about the situation without solving the problem. You might also call it a symbolic gesture or a token gesture.
All I’ve said here is it’s not enough.
There is a HUGE delta between “meaningless” and “not enough”.
You can attempt to spin all you’d like, but people can read your comments and draw their own conclusions.