United States: Biden signs decrees on health coverage and access to abortion
The US president signed several decrees on Thursday, notably on health coverage and access to abortion.
Measures put in place by Barack Obama and then partly dismantled by Donald Trump.
AFP - POOL
Text by: RFI Follow
4 min
Joe Biden continues to unravel the measures taken by his predecessor.
As every day since the beginning of the week, the American president signed several decrees on Thursday, January 28.
This time, it was a question of putting back in place the health cover system voted under the mandate of Barack Obama, and partly dismantled by Donald Trump.
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With our correspondent in Washington,
Anne Corpet
“
The best way to describe what I'm doing is repairing the damage done by Trump,
” Joe Biden said, signing two executive orders.
Donald Trump failed to overturn the
health care law passed under Obama,
but he spent four years barking it with a
series of executive orders
and it was in the same way that Joe Biden restored the system that he had helped develop as a vice president.
“
There's nothing new we're doing here, other than restoring the health care reform law and restoring health coverage to the way it was before Trump became president.
The changes he made by decree made it more inaccessible, more expensive and more difficult for people to qualify for one or the other of these systems,
”explains the US president.
Joe Biden wants to encourage Americans to take out health insurance: as under Obama, a campaign financed by federal funds will be launched in this direction.
Getting coverage for your health care is crucial during a pandemic, the president explained.
Revoke the rules limiting access to abortion
Joe Biden will also revoke the rule prohibiting the US state from funding foreign NGOs offering abortion services, the White House has said.
The new president of the United States will sign an executive order to abolish this rule, a strong political marker for decades: established by the Republican administration of Ronald Reagan, it has been annulled by each Democratic president and reinstated by each Republican.
Called "the Mexico City policy", it prohibits the United States from funding any NGO as soon as it offers even advice on abortion, even if it funds this part of its activities with others. funds.
Joe Biden will also order the Department of Health "
to take immediate action to consider whether it should reverse regulations
" relating to family planning centers in the United States.
Donald Trump's government has banned organizations offering these gynecological services from offering abortions to their patients, or they will lose funding.
The powerful organization Planned Parenthood, which manages many clinics practicing
voluntary termination of pregnancy
(abortion) but also screening for breast cancer, for example, has since had to give up federal funds.
A virtual march of the opponents of abortion
Abortion has been legal in the United States since a historic Supreme Court decision in 1973, but still strongly divides the American population, with opposition still very strong, especially in religious circles.
Like every year around the anniversary date of the Roe V. Wade judgment, abortion opponents have planned to be heard this Friday.
But pandemic obliges, their "march" will be virtual unlike that of last year in which Donald Trump participated.
Her successor, Joe Biden is a devout Catholic, but he supports the right of women to choose whether they want to continue their pregnancy.
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To read: United States: fewer poor, but there are 29 million without health coverage
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