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Massachusetts state House lawmakers on Wednesday passed a bill loosening restrictions on late-term abortion access.
The bill, H.5595, passed 119-33 and will go to the state Senate, state House Speaker Ronald Mariano (D) said in a statement. If it passes the Senate, it will allow an abortion after 24 weeks, if approved by a doctor.
State law allows abortions to be performed on pregnant people at or after 24 weeks to protect the person’s life, their physical or mental health, or if there is a fatal or severe fetal condition with the child.
This restriction has led to many patients leaving the state for access. State Rep. Christine Barber (D) told the Boston Globe that this prompted the bill’s creation.
“Patients have to leave to other states, leave their support network, and pay out of pocket,” Barber told the Globe. “You should be able to get care that your doctors are recommending here in Massachusetts.”
Barber referred to one case of a woman, Kate Dineen, who traveled 500 miles with her husband to a Maryland clinic in 2022 while 33 weeks pregnant. Her baby suffered a stroke in utero. She paid about $10,000 out of pocket for the procedure, the outlet reported.
“Massachusetts has one of the best health care systems in the country, and patients should be able to rely on their providers to deliver medically appropriate care without restrictions that can fail to account for the complexity of individual medical circumstances,” state Rep. Lindsay Sabadosa (D), the bill’s co-sponsor, said in a statement.
The anti-abortion group Massachusetts Citizens for Life slammed the bill’s passage but said its sponsors had “good intentions.” They pointed to the bill permitting one doctor “to subjectively decide that any unborn infant can be killed in or outside of a hospital,” the group’s president, Myrna Maloney Flynn, said in a statement
“Women experiencing unimaginable, heart wrenching pregnancy complications absolutely deserve all the support they need, but that support is not what this bill provides,” Flynn said. “Instead, this bill ensures increased abortion industry profits and taxpayer-funded late-term procedures.”
The bill received support from several major health organizations in the Bay State, including the Massachusetts Health and Hospital Association, Mass General Brigham, UMass Memorial Health, Tufts Medicine and Beth Israel Lahey Health.
The associations and health systems previously called on Mariano to pass the bill, writing in a letter that it would “empower physicians to use their professional judgment and clinical expertise to make decisions in the best interest of their patients.”
The bill will now go to the Senate for consideration and must pass before the legislative session ends on July 31. Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey (D), who supports reproductive health and abortion access, has not indicated if she will sign the bill.
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