Vice Presidential Pool Reports of April 12, 2023

VP Supplemental Pool # 1 -- Tested and Gathered

Hey all --

I'm your Pooler for the Vice President's convening of the Task Force on Reproductive Health Care Access. It's slated to start at 2:45 in the Roosevelt Room.

Your pool is tested and gathered at the stakeout awaiting pickup.

Her remarks at the top will be livestreamed on the White House channels.

Here's some background from VP's office:

On Background from a White House Official

This afternoon, the Vice President will convene the Task Force on Reproductive Healthcare Access to discuss steps the Administration is taking to protect women's access to reproductive health care, particularly in the wake of the Texas district court's decision on medication abortion on Friday. The Vice President's opening remarks will be livestreamed at 2:45pm ET today at www.whitehouse.gov/live.

In the Vice President's remarks, she will highlight the Administration's unwavering commitment to protecting reproductive rights. Attorney General Merrick Garland and HHS Secretary Becerra will also deliver open-press remarks before the meeting moves into a closed-press working meeting.

Overview of today's announcements:

Coinciding with the meeting, the Administration is announcing a series of new actions to safeguard patient privacy:

• HHS is issuing a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking to strengthen privacy protections under HIPAA to strengthen patient-provider confidentiality and help health care providers give complete and accurate information to patients. HHS is also issuing guidance to better safeguard patients' electronic health information, including their information related to reproductive health care.
• The Dept. of Education is issuing guidance on student privacy under FERPA and a know-your-rights resource to help students understand their privacy rights for health records at school.
• The FCC is launching a new guide for consumers on best practices for protecting their data on mobile phones, including geolocation data, which can be especially important in the context of accessing reproductive health care.

Read more about the Administration's actions to protect patient privacy HERE and the Administration's record on protecting access to medication abortion HERE.

VP Supplemental Pool #2 -- meeting begins

Pool walked in around 2:46. VP Harris and the task force for were already sitting a the oval table in the Roosevelt Room.

Around the table with Harris were Secretary Becerra (co-chair), AG Garland, Neera Tanden, Jeff Zients, Jennifer Klein, Shalanda Young, Evan Ryan, Associate AG Vanita Gupta and others. Secretary Cardona joined virtually.

Harris spoke about five minutes about her travels around the country with women, medical providers about abortion access. She also spoke about the Texas case about mifesprostone and the administrion fighting to make sure women have access to abortions in the country.

AG Garland spoke around 2:54 giving an update on the legal fight the administration has undertaken on abortion access, including the enforcement of current law.

Sec. Becerra spoke next. Thanked Vice President Harris for her work on abortion access, and also about the privacy rule the administration has proposed. Announced a new notice of funding opportunity for a hotline for women.

Pool was ushered out at 3:04.

Again, it was livestreamed so if you need quotes,the entire video will be on the white house YouTube page.