White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre congratulated her staffer on having a new baby immediately after dedicating 15 minutes of Monday’s briefing to touting the administration’s pro-abortion efforts.
The press secretary invited White House Gender Policy director Jennifer Klein to the briefing on the 51st anniversary of the Roe v. Wade decision to discuss the administration’s efforts to increase abortion access across the U.S. Both Klein and Jean-Pierre said women are at the risk of death due to Republican-led abortion restrictions, and highlighted President Joe Biden’s goal to codify Roe v. Wade into law.
Immediately after Klein left the podium, Jean-Pierre congratulated White House deputy press secretary Emilie Simons, who is entering maternity leave for five months.
“I wanted to say one last thing to my dear friend Emilie, our deputy press secretary, as she is going to head out to maternity leave today and Emilie, we are so happy for you and Steven on your road to parenthood and I think you are such an amazing human, you’re going to be an amazing mom and just have so much joy. I know everyone here feels that and certainly everyone on our team and I’m going to miss you terribly, you’re gonna be gone for like five months, five months too long. But I’m gonna miss you terribly and I hope you spend that time, I know you’ll spend that time being very, very busy, but also time with your little one.”
The press secretary then gifted Simons a onesie that read, “Future President.”
Jean-Pierre has refused to say at what point in the pregnancy the White House supports restricting abortion and falsely repeated that Republican South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham’s 15-week federal abortion proposal was a complete ban on the procedure. (RELATED: ‘That Didn’t Answer Either Question’: Jean-Pierre Won’t Say Whether Biden Supports Any Abortion Restrictions)
The press secretary further defended Biden’s executive order which directed Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Xavier Becerra to consider having Medicaid fund travel expenses for women traveling across state lines for an abortion. She said the direction would ensure that women whose “lives are in serious jeopardy” are getting the care they need.
Biden has repeatedly urged Congress to codify Roe v. Wade into law following its overturn in the Supreme Court decision, Dobbs v. Women’s Health Organization, in June 2022. The overturn of Roe returned abortion regulation to the states, after nearly 50 years of abortion being legal nationwide until the point of viability.