Restoring US abortion access won’t be easy – but we need leaders who will try

‘We are in a crisis and we need fighters – we need people with energy and ideas.’ Photograph: Eric Gay/AP

Extra, extra, Democrats finally do something

After several weeks of twiddling their thumbs, reciting poems, and breaking out into song, the Democrats have finally done something halfway useful about the rightwing assault on reproductive rights. On Friday Joe Biden signed an executive order safeguarding access to abortion, abortion pills and contraception. The executive order obviously doesn’t restore the nationwide right to an abortion (the president alone doesn’t have the power to do that), but it does set out a plan of action. Of particular note is a provision that would seem to protect women who travel out of state to get the procedure done.