By Bob Katzen

The Alliance to Stop Taxpayer Funded Abortion kicked of its campaign to place a question on the 2022 ballot that simply states, “Nothing in this Constitution requires the public funding of abortion.”

Chairman of the group Tom Harvey filed the paperwork with signatures of the first 10 signers of the petition and began the long journey to get the question on the ballot. The amendment would overturn a 1981 Supreme Judicial Court ruling that found a substantive right to an abortion under the Massachusetts Constitution, paving the way for taxpayer-funded abortions.

“The annihilation of babies in the womb should not be paid for by Massachusetts taxpayers.” said Harvey. “For good reason, national polls show overwhelming opposition to taxpayer funded abortions. Instead of trying to make abortion quick, cavalier, and free, we as a society owe it to women to help them choose life instead.”

“Denying people with low incomes the same access, and dignity, to make personal health decisions that people with private insurance can make runs counter to the values of our commonwealth,” said Tricia Wajda, vice president of external affairs of Planned Parenthood League of Massachusetts and Planned Parenthood Advocacy Fund of Massachusetts. “Like the extreme measures passed in Alabama and Georgia, this ballot effort is part of the larger coordinated campaign to take away people’s rights and outlaw safe, legal abortion entirely. Massachusetts voters do not want political operatives wedging themselves between any person and their doctor and they reject this dangerous agenda.”