After spending $45 million to back Joe Biden in the 2020 presidential race, Planned Parenthood is now expecting Biden to sign an executive order his first day in office to demonstrate “the administration’s commitment to sexual and reproductive health care.”
The abortion giant didn’t say exactly what the order would include, but the organization hasn’t been shy about its plans to dismantle the Hyde Amendment, allowing federal funds to pay for abortion in most cases, as well its strategy to restore funds to abortion providers through the Title X Family Planning Program. Planned Parenthood has also pressured Biden to eliminate the “global gag rule” by rolling back the Mexico City Policy, which would allow foreign organizations to receive U.S. funds for abortion services.
Alexis McGill Johnson, president of Planned Parenthood, told Newsweek that the organization is working closely with the Biden-Harris transition team to ensure they’re “ready to hit the ground running day one.”
Most of the conversations with the Biden-Harris transition team have been focused on appointments within the White House, the administration and various federal agencies, Johnson said. Planned Parenthood and its allies have identified and recommended nearly 200 people for key positions, according to Newsweek.
“We know that personnel is policy,” Johnson said. “So we’re making sure that those positions are filled with sexual and reproductive health champions.”
Although Planned Parenthood is counting on having a friend in the White House to advance its agenda, not everything Biden has promised can be accomplished through executive orders.
For example, codifying Roe v. Wade through law would require approval from the Republican-controlled Senate, and most likely, a majority-conservative Supreme Court. And thanks to President Trump’s unprecedented number of conservative appointments to the federal bench, many pro-life advocates are optimistic.
“Biden and Harris clearly have no mandate to impose their deeply unpopular abortion agenda,” Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of the national pro-life group Susan B. Anthony List, told The Daily Signal. “We must remain vigilant and continue calling out their extremism, but if the 2020 elections prove anything, it is that we can win the long-term battle for life.”
Above: Former Vice President Joe Biden at the We Decide: 2020 Election Membership Forum, an event put on by Planned Parenthood in the University of South Carolina’s Alumni Center in Columbia, South Carolina, on June 22, 2019.
Photo: Leah Millis/Reuters/Alamy Stock Photo