U.S. Justice Dept Launches Task Force To Protect Women's Reproductive Rights

The U.S. Justice Department on Tuesday unveiled a new task force that aims to protect women's reproductive healthcare freedom, after the Supreme Court last month overturned the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling which recognized women's constitutional right to abortion.

The task force, which will be chaired by Associate Attorney General Vanita Gupta, will monitor and evaluate state legislation and enforcement actions that threaten to "infringe on federal legal protections" related to reproductive healthcare, the department said.

It will also monitor laws that seek to ban Mifepristone, one of the two drugs often used to end an early-stage pregnancy, based on disagreements with the Food and Drug Administration's "expert judgment about its safety and efficacy," the department said.

The Supreme Court's 6-3 ruling on June 24 has sent legal shock waves across the country, with 26 states either certain to or considered likely to ban abortion.

Some of the anti-abortion bills, meanwhile, also could potentially criminalize the practice or make it harder for women to travel out of state for the procedure.

The Justice Department said the task force will also monitor any laws that "impair women's ability" to seek care in states where it is legal.

Although abortion is the focus of many state laws, reproductive healthcare advocates have warned that some of these bills could have far wider-reaching implications for women's health beyond the procedure itself.

Some of the state bills, for instance, recognize "personhood" from the moment of fertilization, a definition that could hamper in vitro fertilization treatments in which doctors collect and fertilize a woman's eggs in hopes of finding a viable embryo for transfer into her uterus.

Experts have also warned the ruling could lead to other barriers to accessing healthcare, including specific types of contraception such as intrauterine devices.