WASHINGTON — As Democrats and reproductive rights advocates clamored for President Biden to forcefully counter the Supreme Court’s decision overturning Roe v. Wade, his health secretary, Xavier Becerra, stepped up to a lectern here on Tuesday to list the steps his department would take to preserve and expand access to abortion.
The list, for now anyway, is short.
“There is no magic bullet,” Mr. Becerra said at a morning news conference, “but if there is something we can do, we will find it and we will do it.”
The Supreme Court’s decision on Friday eliminating the constitutional right to abortion was not unexpected, yet neither the White House nor Mr. Becerra’s agency had immediate policy responses at the ready. Officials inside the administration say they are still wrestling with the prospect of a mainstream area of women’s health care suddenly becoming illegal in roughly half the country, and will need time to sort through their options.
Yet Mr. Biden is under intense political pressure to act, and after his news conference some advocates accused Mr. Becerra of sounding tepid. Some Democrats, such as Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, have been pushing the Biden administration to explore the prospect of building abortion clinics on federal land and paying for people from out of state to travel there for the procedure.
Those were not among the measures that Mr. Becerra announced. Instead, he said that at Mr. Biden’s direction he had instructed his agency to take steps such as making sure that federal insurance programs cover medication abortion in cases of rape or incest or when the life of the mother is at risk. Although the Hyde Amendment bars taxpayer funding for abortion, it includes exceptions for those three instances.
“We can’t meet scorched earth with milquetoast,” said Andrea Miller, president of the National Institute for Reproductive Health, an advocacy organization. “I am not asking for scorched earth, but I am saying you need to be willing to stop drawing within the lines. You need to be willing to take some risks.”
In addition to setting up abortion clinics on federal lands, Ms. Miller said the administration should figure out ways to support abortion clinics that are on the verge of closing, perhaps by repurposing them into logistical hubs to help women who need to cross state lines. About half the states are expected to allow bans or other limits on the procedure to take effect in the wake of the ruling, or already have.
Ms. Miller acknowledged that the administration does have limitations, and said she sympathized with Biden officials. But the nation is in a crisis, she said, adding, “Why not push the envelope?”
Mr. Becerra said his agency would work with the Justice Department to ensure that women have access to abortion pills — a pair of two different drugs, taken 24 to 48 hours apart and authorized for the first 10 weeks of pregnancy — in places where state law conflicts with the judgment of the Food and Drug Administration, which has approved the drugs for use and determined that they are safe and effective.
The secretary did not go into detail. But in December, the F.D.A. approved a regulation allowing abortion pills to be prescribed during telemedicine visits and distributed by mail. Some advocates also want the F.D.A. to declare that its regulations pre-empt state laws banning abortion — a move that the Justice Department might have to defend in court.
From Opinion: The End of Roe v. Wade
Commentary by Times Opinion writers and columnists on the Supreme Court’s decision to end the constitutional right to abortion.
It will also require hospital emergency rooms to comply with a federal law mandating that they stabilize patients experiencing a medical emergency — including by performing abortions, if necessary. And the agency will take steps to ensure that patients’ records are private, to keep state or…
Read More: Biden’s Health Secretary: ‘No Magic Bullet’ for Preserving Abortion Access