All-nine-months abortion law will still go to the voters in November 2028, but it now takes effect immediately.
Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey has attached an emergency preamble to the unrestricted abortion bill she signed in August, immediately removing all limitations on late-term abortions in the state.
Her action late Friday afternoon, Nov. 6, prevented a pro-life petition from suspending the abortion law until it could be put to a statewide vote in November 2028. The 112,000 signatures of registered voters that pro-life leaders say they have collected is more than double the amount that would have been needed to suspend the bill if the governor had not acted.
The signatures, which the Massachusetts Secretary of State’s office have not yet certified, are almost triple the number needed to bring the new abortion law before the state’s voters in November 2028.
A spokesman for the Secretary of State’s office told the Register it may take one to two weeks for that office to certify the signatures. If that happens, it will trigger a statewide referendum on the bill in two years.
The previous version of the state’s abortion statute, which was amended in 2020, allowed unlimited abortions up to 24 weeks and after that only to save the life or the “physical or mental health” of the mother or if “the fetus is incompatible with sustained life outside the uterus.”
The new statute removes those limitations, stating instead that abortions at any time in pregnancy “may be performed by a physician based upon the professional judgment of the physician,” as the Register reported in late October.
In a letter Friday attaching the emergency preamble to the all-nine-months abortion bill, Healey said some women who have wanted late-term abortions have been unable to get them in Massachusetts.
“Although these exceptions were intended to accommodate serious circumstances, experience has proven them too narrow to account for the full spectrum of high-risk pregnancy complications that can arise later in pregnancy. Physicians and medical organizations report that the exceptions lack clinical definitions, making it difficult to determine what conditions actually qualify under the statute,” Healey wrote.
“Physicians and medical organizations also report that the exceptions, together with differing institutional interpretations of their requirements by hospitals and their lawyers, can delay care and encourage waiting until a patient’s condition worsens before treatment is considered. Such delay can jeopardize a patient’s health and safety,” Healey said in the letter, which makes no reference to the signatures pro-lifers collected that threatened to suspend the new statute.
“Our current law, in short, creates unnecessary barriers to essential care, jeopardizes patient health, and undermines providers’ ability to deliver compassionate, timely treatment,” Healey wrote, referring to third-trimester abortions.
Opponents of the all-nine-months abortion bill have described it as barbaric.
Myrna Maloney Flynn, president of Massachusetts Citizens for Life, criticized Healey for overriding the will of voters who signed the petition to challenge the new abortion law.
“Governor Healey’s preamble reflects an utter disregard for the men and women she was elected to represent,” Flynn told the Register by email.
“In a matter of a few weeks, more than 100,000 of her constituents went out of their way to oppose a highly controversial, deeply consequential, law that blindsided legislators and voters alike. Healey ignored their questions and concerns on August 10, and she has once again prevented any dialogue,” added Flynn.
“She has not sufficiently explained the ‘emergency’ that warrants her undemocratic rejection of the people’s will, because such an emergency does not exist …” Flynn said.
Healey, a Democrat, won reelection on Nov. 3 to a second four-year term over her Republican challenger, Mike Minogue, 62% to 35%.
