By Bob Katzen
House 119-35, Senate on a voice vote without a roll call, approved and sent to Gov. Healey legislation that would loosen restrictions on abortions that can be performed after 24 weeks of gestation. The bill removes existing requirements that limit abortions at 24 weeks of pregnancy or later to four specific medical circumstances, and instead allows licensed physicians and providers to rely on their best medical judgment when caring for patients.
Supporters said that under current law, the four specific categories do not account for the full spectrum of medical conditions encountered by women and their doctors: protecting the patient’s life or physical or mental health, or cases involving a lethal fetal anomaly or a grave fetal diagnosis.
“No family should have to leave Massachusetts to receive the vital medical care their own doctors recommend, especially in the most heartbreaking moments of a pregnancy,” said Sen. Joan Lovely (D-Salem). “With this vote, the Senate makes clear that these deeply personal decisions belong to patients and the physicians who know them best.”
“As the Trump Administration ramps up attacks on reproductive care and abortion access nationwide, Massachusetts must continue closing gaps in care so that women have full autonomy over the care they need, when and where they need it,” said Sen. Robyn Kennedy (D-Worcester). “[The bill] ensures Massachusetts patients do not have to leave the commonwealth to get the care they need, and empowers physicians to support their patients throughout their pregnancies.”
“Throughout relentless attacks on reproductive rights, Massachusetts has prioritized the fundamental rights and health care of its residents,” said Rep. Christine Barber (D-Somerville), House sponsor of the bill. “This bill continues that work. It ensures access to care by empowering physicians to use their professional judgment to make decisions in the best interest of their patients. Pregnancy is complex, and this bill eliminates barriers and guarantees medical expertise as the standard of care. It comes down to a simple, but powerful conviction: decisions about abortion care must remain between a patient and their provider. No one else. With today’s vote, we show our commitment to protecting the rights of our residents of the commonwealth.”
Opponents said the legislation allows elective abortions up to birth based solely on a physician’s professional judgment. They said it eliminates the current requirement that complex late-term abortions be performed in a hospital setting, thus allowing abortions on healthy mothers and healthy infants at a stage when unborn children can feel pain and may be able to survive outside the womb.
“Late-term abortions present a number of significant risks to women, which is why the procedures have long been performed in hospitals,” said Myrna Maloney Flynn, president of Massachusetts Citizens for Life. “There is one reason why pro-abortion activists want to remove hospitals from abortion policy, and it has nothing to do with women’s care or safety. Not one legislator who voted for this has been brave enough to acknowledge the truth, the inconvenient fact that this bill allows heinous dismemberment abortions on perfectly healthy and viable babies. It is accepted science that an unborn baby’s nervous system is developed enough at 24 weeks of pregnancy so that the baby can feel pain. By passing this bill, Massachusetts lawmakers have decided that an abortionist can crush the skull of any infant then tear that baby apart, limb by limb.”
“This bill, pushed by radical pro-abortion activist groups like Planned Parenthood, is a dangerous attempt to remove virtually all remaining protections in the commonwealth for unborn babies,” said the Massachusetts Family Institute in a press release. “It allows abortion past 24 weeks with no requirement of medical justification, meaning abortions could be performed at full term, just days before natural birth, for any reason or no reason at all.”
The release continued, “In addition, current law requires late-term abortions to be performed in a hospital — recognition that a procedure this serious, at this stage of pregnancy, demands a hospital’s resources and safeguards. This bill eliminates that requirement. A late-term abortion could legally be performed anywhere a provider chooses, with none of the protections a hospital setting is meant to guarantee. This is not healthcare – this is a direct attack on the dignity of life.”
(A “Yes” vote is for the bill. A “No” vote is against it.)
Rep. Christine Barber Yes Rep. Mike Connolly Yes Rep. Paul Donato Yes Rep. Erika Uyterhoeven Yes