WASHINGTON — President Biden’s top aides are weighing whether he can or should take a series of executive actions to help women in Republican-controlled states obtain abortions if the Supreme Court eliminates a woman’s right to end her pregnancy, according to senior administration officials.
Some of the ideas under consideration include declaring a national public health emergency, readying the Justice Department to fight any attempt by states to criminalize travel for the purpose of obtaining an abortion, and asserting that Food and Drug Administration regulations granting approval to abortion medications pre-empt any state bans, the officials said.
Since a draft opinion was leaked last month indicating that the Supreme Court was prepared to overturn the landmark Roe v. Wade decision — an action that would prompt at least 20 states to prohibit or severely curtail access to abortion — abortion rights advocates have been lobbying the White House to take extraordinary steps to mitigate the effect.
“We are at a crisis moment for abortion access in this country, and officials at all levels of government must respond — including the executive branch,” said Marya Torrez, senior director of policy development and strategy at Planned Parenthood Federation of America.
No executive order can re-establish a constitutional right. It would take an act of Congress to restore a national legal standard barring states from outlawing abortion, and proponents currently lack sufficient votes in the Senate, where Republicans can filibuster such a bill. But Mr. Biden has signaled that he wants to move on his own.
“I don’t think the country will stand for it,” Mr. Biden told the talk show host Jimmy Kimmel last week in discussing the likely end of Roe v. Wade, adding: “There’s some executive orders I could employ, we believe. We’re looking at that right now.”
The White House counsel, Dana Remus, the director of its gender policy council, Jennifer Klein, and the director of its domestic policy council, Susan Rice, are overseeing the legal and policy vetting of potential executive actions. Anita Dunn, a senior policy adviser to Mr. Biden, is in charge of broader planning, including communications strategy, officials said.
The Supreme Court is expected to issue a decision at the end of its term in about two weeks, and White House aides believe the ruling could touch off a political crisis, including mass protests. Further complicating matters, the decision may come down while Mr. Biden is in Europe for the Group of 7 summit.
The contingency planning is also said to include what to do if such a fiercely polarizing development leads to acts of violence. The administration has already heightened security for the Supreme Court justices after one man, apparently angered by anticipated conservative rulings on abortion and guns, traveled to suburban Washington from California intending to kill Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh.
The ruling could reshape the political environment at a time when Democrats are considered likely to lose control of Congress in the November midterm elections. Against that backdrop, Mr. Biden’s advisers have been grappling with both legal and political complexities as they develop a list of possible responses.