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By Tierney Sneed<\/p>\n
Upcoming state-level pushes to further restrict abortion access will be on the radar of the US Justice Department, top DOJ officials said Monday as they touted the work the Biden administration has sought to do to shore up abortion access in the wake of the Supreme Court<\/a>\u2018s Roe v. Wade reversal last year.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve obviously been very active in monitoring what\u2019s happening in the states and locally, and given that most state legislatures now are coming back into session, we\u2019ll be continuing to do so and looking at any laws that may get passed that infringe on federal protections,\u201d said Associate Attorney General Vanita Gupta, who leads a department task force\u00a0on reproductive rights that was launched after the Supreme Court\u2019s decision.<\/p>\n She was joined by Attorney General Merrick Garland to speak briefly to reporters at the top of a task force meeting, timed to the 50th anniversary of the Roe decision, which protected abortion rights nationwide before the ruling was overturned by the Supreme Court in June.<\/p>\n Several states had restrictive laws and bans already on the books that went into effect after the ruling \u2014 though some were blocked in state court in lawsuits challenging them under state constitutions.<\/p>\n In the coming weeks, however, many state legislatures will be reconvening <\/a>for the first time since the Dobbs decision and anti-abortion lawmakers are expected to further tighten up laws around the procedure.<\/p>\n \u201cMany of us feared that that decision would deal a devastating blow to reproductive freedom in the United States, that it would have an immediate and irreversible impact on the lives of people across the country, and that the greatest burdens would be felt by people of color. And those of limited financial means,\u201d Garland said. \u201cUnfortunately, that is exactly what has happened.\u201d<\/p>\n The options the federal government have for mitigating the effects of the June decision are limited. The Supreme Court\u2019s conservative majority said in the ruling that the US Constitution did not guarantee a right to abortion, freeing the states to limit or fully outlaw the procedure.<\/p>\n Garland and Gupta pointed to a lawsuit that the Justice Department brought against Idaho for its extremely strict abortion ban, which was partially <\/a>blocked by a federal judge last year to the extent it prevented women from receiving abortion care in medical emergencies. The judge agreed with the DOJ\u2019s arguments that federal law protected abortion access in those situations, but a judge in Texas <\/a>\u2014 in a separate case brought by Texas to challenge the Biden administration\u2019s guidance \u2014 has disagreed with that interpretation.<\/p>\n On Monday, the DOJ leaders also pointed to the counsel the department has given agencies to bolster reproductive access \u2014 including advice on a Department of Veterans Affairs policy to offer abortion services at its medical facilities in certain circumstances, and an internal executive branch opinion interpreting federal law as allowing the mailing of abortion pills.<\/p>\n