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The order requires the Secretary of Health and Human Services, Xavier Becerra, submit a report on the process adoption of these measures within the next 30 days.

From within the Democratic Party, Biden was pressured to take more decisive action following the Supreme Court’s decision to eliminate the constitutional protection of abortion with the repeal of Roe vs. Wade.

This opened the way for each state to define whether it allows abortion, in addition to the regulations to regulate it.

The president used his remarks to tell Americans that the only way to “exercise and restore” women’s right to abortion is by “exercising the power of the vote.”

“Let me explain: We need two additional pro-abortion senators, plus a House [de Representantes] pro-abortion in order to codify Roe into law. His vote can make this a reality,” Biden said.

The presidential move comes two weeks following the Supreme Court struck down Roe v. Wade, the 1973 decision that guaranteed the constitutional right to abortion throughout the United States.

Since then, at least nine states have instituted almost absolute bans on abortion, with only the exception of danger to the life of the mother in some of them.

In contrast, other states are seeking to protect abortion access amid myriad legal challenges, while abortion clinics are trying to find ways to operate in this new legal context.

Biden also asked the attorney general and White House advisers to contact pro bono attorneys and public interest organizations to promote legal representation for women seeking, and medical facilities offering, abortions.

Anthony Zurcher’s Analysisjournalist for the BBC in North America

Ever since the Supreme Court published its decision to strike down Roe vs. Wade, abortion-rights activists have been calling on the president to do more.

Many saw the US president’s initial reaction, an expression of sadness at the decision and a call to vote Democrat in the midterm elections, as simply inadequate.

Rumors that Biden was not up to the task, whether due to his advanced age or political disposition, grew to the point that the White House might no longer ignore them.

However, the power of the presidency on the abortion issue is particularly limited given the provisions established by Congress that prohibit the federal government from spending funds to support abortion: some of those provisions received the support of Biden at the time.

This leaves the president in a bind.

Polls indicate that the majority of the public overwhelmingly supports the legality of abortion, even in states that have bans planned for the future.

But any comprehensive measure the president seeks to support will face legal challenges, and the public’s support for the presidential actions may wane if it sees the White House overstepping its powers.

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Shinzo Abe may no longer be Japan’s prime minister, but he was still a key figure in Japanese public life and probably the most recognizable Japanese politician of the last three decades.

I am trying to think of an equivalent, another act of political violence that has been equally shocking to the local population. The one that comes to mind is the shooting of Swedish Prime Minister Olof Palme in 1986.

When I say that people here don’t think regarding violent crime, I’m not exaggerating..

Yes, there are the Yakuza, Japan’s notorious violent organized crime gangs. But most people never come into contact with them.

And even the Yakuza steer clear of guns because the penalties for illegal possession make them simply not worth having.

Owning a gun in Japan is extremely difficult.

It requires no criminal record, mandatory training, psychological evaluation, and extensive background checks that include police interviews of neighbors.

Consequently, gun crime is practically non-existent.

On average, there are fewer than 10 gun-related deaths in Japan each year. In 2017, there were only three.

It’s no wonder then that much of the attention has focused on the gunman and the gun he used.

Who is he? Where did you get the gun?

Japanese media report that the 41-year-old is a former member of the country’s self-defense forces, the equivalent of the military.

But closer inspection shows that he only spent three years in the Navy.

The weapon he used is even more curious.

Footage of her lying on the ground following the shooting shows what looks like a homemade gun.

Two pieces of steel tubing taped together with black duct tape, with some kind of hand-made trigger. It looks like something created from plans downloaded from the internet.

So was this a deliberate political attack, or the act of a fantasist, someone who wanted to become famous by shooting someone famous?

So far, what the authorities have said is that the attacker had some kind of grudge once morest the former president.

The news has shocked a country that prides itself on citizen security.

Japan has certainly had its share of political assassinations.

The most famous was in 1960, when Japan’s Socialist Party leader Inejiro Asanuma was stabbed in the abdomen by a right-wing fanatic wielding a samurai sword.

Although right-wing extremists still exist in Japan, Abe, a right-wing nationalist, would be an unlikely target.

In recent years, we have seen another type of crime become more common. That of the reserved and lonely man who keeps a deep record once morest someone or something.

In 2019, one set fire to a building housing a popular animation studio in Kyoto, killing 36 people.

He told police that he resented the studio because it “stole his job.”

In another case in 2008, a disgruntled young man drove a truck into a crowd of shoppers in Tokyo’s Akihabara district, then got out and started stabbing people. Seven people died.

Before carrying out the attack, he had posted a message online saying, “I will kill people in Akihabara” and “I don’t have a single friend, I am ignored because I am ugly. I am inferior to trash.”

It’s not yet clear whether Abe’s shooting falls into the first or second category.

But probably the murder will change Japan.

Given how safe it is the countrythes protection measures are very relaxed.

During election campaigns, like the current one, politicians literally stand on street corners giving speeches and shaking hands with shoppers and passers-by without the protection of bodyguards.

That explains why an attacker like Abe’s was able to get close enough to fire such a basic weapon with such precision.

Something that will surely change from now on.

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