A bill that would allow abortion for any reason up until the point of birth passed the Massachusetts House of Representatives last week and could become law by Friday if the state Senate passes the measure. Advocates are decrying the proposed measure as inhuman and are urging the public in the Bay State to reach out to their representatives to vote the legislation down.
The bill (H.5595) passed out of the overwhelmingly Democratic state House on July 22 by a vote of 119-33, which would allow abortions to be carried out on babies at any gestational age after 24 weeks for any reason if approved by a doctor. The legislation would further loosen current state laws on abortion, which allow abortions to be committed on babies at or after 24 weeks to protect the life, physical, or mental health of the mother, or if there is a fatal or severe fetal condition.
Massachusetts Democrats justified the measure by claiming that a number of pregnant mothers have had to travel to states with no gestational limits to abort their late-term babies. “You should be able to get care that your doctors are recommending here in Massachusetts,” state Rep. Christine Barber (D) argued.
But pro-life advocates say that the legislation does nothing to improve women’s health care, as supporters claim. “Women experiencing unimaginable, heart wrenching pregnancy complications absolutely deserve all the support they need, but that support is not what this bill provides,” Massachusetts Citizens for Life President Myrna Maloney Flynn remarked in a statement. “Instead, this bill ensures increased abortion industry profits and taxpayer-funded late-term procedures.” She also highlighted how the legislation allows a single doctor “to subjectively decide that any unborn infant can be killed in or outside of a hospital.”
Supporters of the Massachusetts bill argue that it is necessary in order to provide women with abortions when their lives are in danger due to a late-term complication. But medical experts say that abortion is never required to save a mother’s life.
“It is never medically necessary to purposely end the life of a preborn child in order to save her mother,” Christina Francis, a board-certified OB-GYN and CEO of the American Association of Pro-Life Obstetricians and Gynecologists (AAPLOG) told Catholic Review last year. “[U]nder certain circumstances where a pregnancy complication threatens a mother’s life, a physician must separate mom from baby, sometimes when the baby is too young to survive outside the womb.”
Francis further explained that this separation of a mother and her baby is not an abortion. “AAPLOG recommends referring to these interventions as ‘maternal-fetal separations’ given the clear difference of intent between those lifesaving treatments and induced abortion.”
If the measure passes and becomes law, Massachusetts would become the 11th state (plus the District of Columbia) to have no gestational limits on abortion. The other states include Alaska, Colorado, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, Oregon, and Vermont.
Experts like Michael King, who serves as president of the Massachusetts Family Institute, say that the proposed law takes all restrictions off of the state’s previous abortion law, which already amounted to “infanticide.” “This bill basically allows abortion at any time of the pregnancy and for any reason, so it is absolutely egregious. Maine passed a similar bill back in 2023. So we’re trying to get the word out. We’re in the final week of this legislative session, trying to have the Senate not take up this bill for a vote.”
King further detailed that not only does the legislation allow abortion up to birth for any reason, it would also “tak[e] this whole process of abortion outside of the hospital. So a doctor could do this perhaps anywhere they think is viable to do this kind of procedure [and] take out the safeguards of a hospital.”
King went on to lament that since the Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v. Wade in 2022, “we’re now dealing with even more egregious laws like this in our states. And sadly, abortion is on the rise through chemical abortion and those kinds of things crossing state lines. So we have a lot of work to do on this life issue. As our friend David Wright said the other day, we have to keep fighting this politically, but this is a very cultural issue as well that we really need to get [convert] people’s hearts on.”
King concluded by emphasizing the importance of Massachusetts citizens contacting their representatives as soon as possible. “The session comes to an end at midnight this Friday, so let’s hope and pray that the Senate does not take up a vote on this issue before Friday.” He noted that Bay State residents can text the word “life” to 87891 for contact information for state senators and for a link to an email that can be sent urging them to protect unborn life.
