(LifeSiteNews) — The Biden administration’s new director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC) is “so disappointed” that some states now legally protect preborn life, according to a new interview.
Dr. Mandy Cohen, former executive at healthcare company Aledade and secretary of the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services, took over leadership of the CDC from controversial predecessor Dr. Rochelle Walensky. On Monday, she spoke with Time magazine on a range of health-related issues, including abortion.
“I’m so disappointed that we are here, that we are having the conversation to revisit whether or not women should have access to health care when they need it,” Cohen said. “And, you know, I will say as a mom of two daughters, a physician, and now the director of the CDC, I’m going to continue to make sure that we are working to make sure women have access to care when they need it, and that they have medical treatment when they need it.”
Cohen declared that the CDC would “support however we can the work that’s being done across the government to support women in their reproductive health,” including making use of an “entire center engaged around birth defects, and around thinking about how we talk to women about maternal health—before they’re getting pregnant, while they’re pregnant, and after they’re pregnant.”
In the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade last year, which allowed states to directly ban abortion for the first time in half a century, President Joe Biden ordered federal agencies to pursue a “whole-of-government effort to protect reproductive rights [sic],” and U.S. Secretary of Health & Human Services Xavier Becerra declared a “national imperative” to promote easy access to abortion pills, which has since included guidances allowing abortion pills to be distributed by mail in violation of federal law (which the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals rebuked earlier this month).
The Biden administration has also attempted to force emergency room doctors to take part in abortion and churches to subsidize abortions, both of which landed the administration in court.
Fifteen states currently ban all or most abortions, with available data so far indicating that pro-life state laws could effectively wipe out an estimated 200,000 abortions a year.
In response, abortion allies pursue a variety of tactics to preserve abortion “access,” such as legal protection and financial support of interstate abortion travel, attempting to enshrine “rights” to the practice in state constitutions rather than the U.S. Constitution, constructing new abortion facilities near borders shared by pro-life and pro-abortion states, and making liberal states sanctuaries for those who want to evade or violate the laws of more pro-life neighbors.
Biden has called on Congress to codify a “right” to abortion in federal law, which would not only restore but expand the Roe status quo by making it illegal for states to pass virtually any pro-life laws. The 2024 elections will determine whether Democrats retain the White House and keep or gain enough seats in Congress to make that happen.