In July, 2023 President Joe Biden’s Food and Drug Administration approved the sale of an over-the-counter birth control pill marketed as Opill in the US. As of the end of March, 2024, it is available at CVS and Walgreens.
Fulfilling a campaign promise, earlier this month, President Joe Biden reversed regulations implemented by the previous administration that had made it more difficult from victims to bring complaints for sexual assault. The new protections broaden the narrowed definition of what constitutes sexual harassment, and finally broaden Title IX to cover gay, transgender, and pregnant people.
On March 18, 2024, President Joe Biden signed an executive order significantly expanding women’s health care research, as well as 20 additional actions in various federal agencies targeting improvements in women’s health, including $200 million for research at the National Institute of Health.
Throughout his presidency, President Joe Biden, with the help of Vice President Kamala Harris, has been incredibly active through executive orders in battling the loss of Roe v. Wade and the statewide iniatives designed to deny women health care, including abortions, access to contraception, safeguarding patient privacy, and sensitive health information. Initiatives include protecting the right to travel, providing services to veterans, current service members, and emergency abortion care.
President Joe Biden signed the Violence Against Women Act of 2022, reauthorizing it until 2027. The previous administration had allowed the Act to lapse. This new version of VAWA provides unprecedented support for survivors of sexual violence in Native Alaskan and tribal communities, giving them jurisdiction to prosecute non-tribal offenders who sexually assault tribal members.
