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U.S. President Joe Biden's administration was looking at grants to help fund expanding access to emergency contraception as a possible response if the Supreme Court overturns a 1973 decision that legalized abortion nationwide, White House spokesperson Jen Psaki said on Wednesday. "What we have done to date ... where we have seen restrictions ... is created for example the dire need grant awards, which provide funding to expand access to emergency contraception," Psaki told reporters in a press briefing. (5/4)

In the hours after a leaked Supreme Court document signaled the court was poised to overturn Roe v. Wade in the coming weeks, President Biden vowed to fight to protect access to abortion. “We will be ready when any ruling is issued,” Biden said in a statement Tuesday. But in marathon meetings and phone calls among White House officials, government lawyers, outside advisers and federal agency officials, a sobering reality settled in: There’s little the White House can do that will fundamentally alter a post-Roe landscape. (Abutaleb and Pager, 5/4)

Supporters of a woman’s right to choose quickly called on President Joe Biden to protect access to abortion after a leaked draft opinion suggested the Supreme Court is prepared to strike down Roe v. Wade. But legal experts caution that Biden’s options are limited. Most of the steps the administration could take to preserve abortion access would rely heavily on untested legal positions, said Mary Ziegler, a visiting law professor at Harvard University who has studied and written about abortion rights.“They’re experimental options,” Ziegler said, “in the sense that they may or may not work.” (Collins, 5/4)

President Biden’s longtime discomfort with the issue of abortion, fueled by his Catholicism and his personal and complex stance on access, has come under scrutiny this week with the leak of a Supreme Court draft opinion that shows a majority of justices supporting the reversal of Roe v. Wade. The president is often criticized for attempting to balance his faith with his support for abortion access. But Biden hasn’t publicly used the word abortion out loud during his presidency until this week and he also hasn’t called for an end to the filibuster in order for Congress to codify Roe v. Wade as he has for other legislative matters. (Gangitano, 5/5)

For President Biden, the threat to the landmark Roe decision represents a singular challenge as he attempts to put aside a long history of evident discomfort with the issue of abortion to transform himself into a champion of the constitutional right that may soon be erased from the law books. Over the course of a half-century in national politics, Mr. Biden has rarely been the full-throated backer of abortion rights that activists have sought, evolving from an outright critic of Roe early in his career to a seemingly reluctant and largely quiet supporter. While he has used the word “abortion” in written statements as president, he had never spoken the word out loud since taking office until this week when the draft ruling leaked. (Baker, 5/5)

Alack of access to legal abortion services could directly lead to American deaths, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention argued Wednesday. “Women who are interested in accessing care, termination of their pregnancies, may not have resources to cross state lines,” Rochelle Walensky said. “Those who don’t may take matters in their own hands, and may not get exactly the care they need … I do think lives could be at stake in that situation.” (Facher, 5/4)