Rice made promoting LGBT rights a priority in her work in the Obama administration, and has said that she is "pro-choice." Planned Parenthood praised her appointment as UN ambassador, saying she would help bring "equality to women and women's health around the world."
In an August interview with NPR, Rice discussed her relationship with her son and areas of agreement and disagreement. "We disagree on things like choice. I'm pro-choice. He's pro-life. That's the kind of difference that we ought to be able to respect," she said.
In 2016, Rice addressed an audience at American University about LGBT rights. Rice said that when the Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriage in 2015, she and her husband took a photo together outside the White House which was lit in rainbow colors.
"That Friday night of the landmark Supreme Court ruling, my husband I took a photo together that we cherish, outside of the White House lit up in the colors of the rainbow to celebrate what we've always known-that love is love is love," she said.
Biden's White House chief of staff will be Ron Klain, who previously served as his chief of staff when Biden was vice president.
In a June 11, 2019 op-ed in the Washington Post, Klain warned that the Supreme Court could overrule Roe v. Wade and "impose nationwide restrictions on abortion - even in pro-choice states - in the name of 'fetal rights.'" During the campaign, Biden pledged to enact sweeping federal protections for unlimited abortion access in a bid to preclude future state limitations being placed on the practice.
Biden also made appointments to critical health care positions during the coronavirus pandemic. He tapped Vivek Murthy to be Surgeon General after he served in the position from Dec., 2014 until the end of Obama's presidency.
Murthy supported the Obama administration's contraceptive mandate; at his confirmation hearing in 2014, he was asked by Sen. Mike Enzi (R-Wyo.) if he believed "contraception coverage should be mandatory regardless of religion."
Murthy did not confirm or deny that, but answered that "I respect people's individual beliefs and religious beliefs" and that as surgeon general he would "bring the science, not just to the public, but to legislators as well" to make policy decisions.
On the subject of vaccine mandates, Murthy spoke out in 2015 of the need for parents to vaccinate their children against diseases such as measles and expressed concern about the spread of disease in areas where large religious communities refuse vaccinations.
"When you're in a pocket with low vaccination rates, that's when you find yourself at greater risk of getting measles," Murthy said in an interview with CBS News.
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Biden has also tapped two other Catholics as cabinet heads-Gen. Lloyd Austin who, if confirmed, would serve as the first Black Defense Secretary, and Denis McDonough, former White House chief of staff under Obama, to serve as Secretary of Veterans Affairs.
Matt Hadro was the political editor at Catholic News Agency through October 2021. He previously worked as CNA senior D.C. correspondent and as a press secretary for U.S. Congressman Chris Smith.