Welcome to POLITICO’s West Wing Playbook, your guide to the people and power centers in the Biden administration. With help from Allie Bice. Send tips | Subscribe here | Email Alex | Email Max A little known group within the White House is about to be thrust into the center of the most contentious fights in American politics. Monday evening, POLITICO broke the news that the Supreme Court had drafted a majority opinion that would strike down the landmark Roe v. Wade decision, likely leading to the outlawing of most abortion services in dozens of conservative states. In a brief statement on Tuesday, Biden said that the White House Gender Policy Council and the White House Counsel’s Office were working together to “prepare options for an Administration response to the continued attack on abortion and reproductive rights, under a variety of possible outcomes in the cases pending before the Supreme Court.” So… what is the Gender Policy Council? The White House revived the office in 2021 with the goal of addressing how administration policies affected womens’ lives. But as it became clear last year that the Supreme Court seemed poised to overturn Roe, the group ramped up its work examining its limited options for how to help women (particularly those without the means to easily cross state lines) maintain some access to abortion. According to White House officials, the council is considered interally further to the left on abortion than Biden, who embraced the party’s past “safe, legal, and rare” language on the issue. The council member’s more unambiguous pro-abortion rights positions occasionally created tension with other officials in the White House who, like Biden, believe it’s better politics to make the argument about a right to privacy than a right to abortion access. A White House official pushed back on the characterization, saying that there is “less a disconnect with the administration's policies and thinking on abortion,” than an effort by the council to “think of bold approaches in this moment.” JULISSA REYNOSO, First Lady JILL BIDEN’S former chief of staff, co-chaired the policy council until earlier this year, but a spokesperson confirmed she stepped away from the role when she was nominated to be ambassador to Spain. And so, for now, the council is being headed up by JENNIFER KLEIN, who was previously the group’s co-chair and, prior to that, was a top official at Time’s Up. Last week, our own LAURA BARRÓN-LÓPEZ spoke with Klein, who said that the White House spent the last year bracing and planning for the decision, including holding listening sessions led by Vice President KAMALA HARRIS, with health care providers, patients and advocates across Texas, Mississippi and Kentucky. Klein’s also held meetings in recent weeks with state legislators in other states where laws have similarly been passed restricting access to abortions. “This court is poised to overturn 50 years of precedent,” Klein told Laura. “At the moment, what we are doing is working very hard to explore all options, every option to protect reproductive health care, including access to abortion, and we’ll continue to do that.” A Biden adviser described the council as the “hub” on this issue. “They are [the] ones deciding what options are available to protect that right,” the adviser said. “But the short of it is there's no there's no replacement, there's nothing that can replace the protection of Roe versus Wade, if that goes away.” One Biden adviser said that while the council is examining policy options, the Department of Justice will likely look at different state anti-abortion laws where the administration could litigate. The president’s team is also thinking about the issue on a political level. With little hope that this Congress will eliminate the filibuster and pass a law enshrining the right to abortion, the Biden team is hoping that the issue can galvanize voters to elect pro-choice lawmakers. “The more extreme Republicans and those who oppose this right … they put themselves in a difficult position because the strong majority of Americans support this right,” Klein told POLITICO last week. “Politically it is more motivating for Democrats and pro choice Americans than it is for that small minority of Republicans." TINA TCHEN , who ran the White House council on women and girls during the Obama administration and has worked with Klein, said that the council is coordinating different parts of the federal government to develop possible responses. “This is a whole new era, and it's why you want a group like a Gender Policy Council… to sit at the center, at White House reporting to the president that can command all of these different parts of the federal government to bring those resources to bear,” said Tchen, who left her perch at the group Time’s Up during the fallout over the scandal involving former New York Gov. ANDREW CUOMO. "There's a little bit of a head start now to June [when a final Court decision is expected] to be looking at what options there may be.” (West Wing Playbook will have more in tomorrow’s newsletter on what actions abortion rights advocates want the administration to take). With help from Laura Barrón-López TEXT US — ARE YOU SHILPA PHADKE, deputy director of the Gender Policy Council. We want to hear from you (we’ll keep you anonymous). Or if you think we missed something in today’s edition, let us know and we may include it tomorrow. Email us at westwingtips@politico.com.
| 
