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US PRESIDENT JOE Biden has said that federal legislation offered the fastest route to restoring abortion rights and urged voters to elect pro-choice legislators in upcoming elections as he ordered new measures to secure reproductive freedoms.
Condemning the “terrible, extreme” decision by the Supreme Court to remove the constitutional right to an abortion, Biden said the most effective response would be made at the ballot box in the November midterm elections by electing lawmakers to give him firm control of the legislature he now lacks.
“The fastest route to restore Roe is to pass a national law codifying Roe, which I will sign immediately upon its passage at my desk. We cannot wait,” Biden said, referring to the 1973 Roe v Wade ruling that established the right to abortion.
“We cannot allow an out of control Supreme Court working in conjunction with extremist elements of the Republican Party to take away freedoms and our personal autonomy,” he said.
Under pressure to take a harder line on defending abortion access, Biden signed an executive order offering fresh but limited measures to bolster women’s reproductive rights.
Biden has been criticised from within his own Democratic Party for perceived inaction since the Supreme Court ruling on 24 June.
After the court ruling, several states have banned or severely restricted abortion and others are expected to follow suit.
Many Democrats, often speaking anonymously in the press, have complained that Biden and his team have failed to respond adequately to the bombshell judgment by the Supreme Court.
On the day of the ruling, the administration seemed caught off guard even though a draft had been leaked weeks before.
The president announced two packages of regulatory measures on 24 June: on access to abortion pills and the rights of women to travel to another state for an abortion if their own state bans the procedure.
But, in a rare move, press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre cancelled her daily briefing on the day.
Biden left shortly after on a trip to Europe, frustrating abortion-rights activists and lawmakers who were eager for more decisive action from the president.
Seeking to recover, Biden on Friday signed an executive order designed to protect women’s sensitive health-related data and “fight digital surveillance related to reproductive health care services.”
Advocacy groups are warning of the risks posed by women’s online data such as their geolocation and apps that monitor their menstrual cycles, which they say could be used to go after women who have had abortions.
Biden’s order also seeks to protect mobile clinics deployed to the borders of states that have banned abortion.
The administration also wants to guarantee access to contraception and abortion medication and set up a network of volunteer lawyers to help women on abortion issues, the White House said.
‘A man out of time?’
But these measures will have limited effect. Biden cannot do much to battle the Supreme Court or states hostile to him when he lacks a solid majority in Congress.
So Biden is calling on Americans to turn out in droves and vote Democrat in the midterm elections.
The goal is to codify the right to abortion as a federal law, which would nullify state decisions to ban the procedure.
But many Democrats fear this drive to get out the vote will flop. Biden is now an unpopular president and Americans’ biggest worry these days is sky-high inflation.
And beyond the abortion issue some Democrats wonder if Biden, 79, a centrist who shuns headline-grabbing action, has the ability to take on an aggressively conservative American right in an era of acute political tension.
All he has to do is look at press editorials of recent days, including ones in news outlets seen as sympathetic.
“Is Joe Biden the wrong president at the wrong time?” read a headline Thursday in The Washington Post, while The Atlantic magazine asked “Is Biden a Man out of Time?”
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Any chance of an update on concerned citizen millionaire banker brother of FG TD who you claimed yesterday was a non political small business owner? No didn’t think so.
Good aul Hugh deleted my comment yesterday as I outed him. Good man Hugh.
*yawn*
Neal what’s yawn about this story, it was plastered all over the media yesterday that’s he was a small business man who was apolitical. He was lying about both these issues, he was the CEO for a banking fund and he is the brother of ex FG TD, Seymour Crawford.
Nothing yawn about it. Downright deceitful!!
I am outraged!
Can we have additional reporting done on your article regarding Mary Lou and this concerned citizen from yeaterday please. This is what you need to be covering not some elitist boarding school in the US.
Exactly.
What we need is a witch hunt against the private citizen who dared to criticise SF.
We need to know his name, his family history, his occupation and as many details of his personal life as possible.
We need to show people that dissent will not be tolerated.
We need to print his name as often as possible to try to intimidate others into silence.
WE NEED TO SHOW – IN CAPS LOCK – THAT WE ARE A BUNCH OF SCREAMING WHINGING BABIES WHO ARE CHRONICALLY INCAPABLE OF RESPONDING TO CRITICISM WITHOUT ASSASSINATING THE CHARACTER OF THE PERSON CRITICISING OUR POLICIES.
That’ll show ‘em.
Calm down ffs you will give yourself an ulcer. Politics is a dirty game and this was up there in the top five but SF are no strangers to doing the odd dirty trick.
A private citizen expressing an opinion publicly is not a dirty trick, Donna.
Printing his name, occupation, background and – most disgustingly – family details online IS a dirty trick.
It sends a very clear message of intimidation. “Dare to criticise us, and our fanatics will expose you”.
Shameful.
Are you saying he just happened to be walking by at that time? Did he not seek her out to confront her? Is he a FG supporter? Connected to FG?
I’ve no idea, Donna.
He could be the worst ***** in all of Christendom for all I know.
But what I do know is shooting the messenger, playing the man and not the ball and refusing to engage in any discussions or debates with someone who disagrees with you paints SF supporters in a very bad light.
Ad hominem attacks make SF supporters look like whinging toddlers.
Why not point out where he was wrong?
Try to convince us where his argument was weak?
Show us that there is a better way?
Spot on Brinster. A knee-capping will be next.
Don’t get me wrong I wouldn’t vote SF no matter what they promised. Your man was a bit of a knobend. Mary loo is like Adams all talk and nothing else just the same old mantra.
Btinster , do you really think that Hugh would report the truth , that Concerned Citizen is actually Concerned Hedgefund Manager and FG TD’s brother ? It’s above his (FG) pay grade.
two weeks in a row, I won’t get my head out the door
3 in a row and you qualify to write articles on here.
Lucinda Creighton will be watching you next week. Locked up for life if you get three!
a whole article, now I’m really going to try
Richard , it’s a trick to quiten you down.They did the same to Captain Adebayor , haven’t heard from him since. Time to change your moniker from Richard Cynical to Richard Compliant.
Ah Captain A had some great comments , very witty .
That “concerned citizen” was a dirty trick by fg,labour. They will pay for it in GE.
Yeah – and hijacking every other story because someone dared to criticise Mary Lou doesn’t make you look like a whinging, screaming toddler at all.
Maybe you could try to defend the policies, rather than attack the messenger?
His Brown Thomas leather gloves and blue scarf kind of gave it away for me.
Id like to see the journo covering that fake FG supporter who went on the attack at Mary Lou ….come on Hugh
I will not be voting FG after that episode yesterday. If you can’t get votes fairly then you don’t deserve them.
If he was a plant,it’s another own goal by FG..but in fairness to ML..she engaged with him once he said he wasn’t a journalist..
Mary Lou engaged and fair play to her. It’s the SF activists who screamed blue must and immediately started the witch hunt that I have the issue with. Demanding to know who he was, what’s his family history, publishing his name for dating to speak his mind. Whinging toddlers the lot of them.
The shinnerbots don’t like it up ‘em! Been a bad few days on the campaign trail, Jorry making a fool of himself with Sean Duignan….sounds like an email went out from IRA HQ this morning saying “Attack every comments board you can find”. It’s actually very funny to see.
I notice Eugene hasn’t commented so he must be still sleeping off his hangover !
have your say