Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey signed an abortion bill into law on Aug. 10 that removed the state’s current 24-week ban and legalized abortions up to the point of birth for any reason with a doctor’s “professional judgment.”
When the law takes effect in 90 days, Massachusetts will join 10 other states and the District of Columbia in allowing abortion up to the point of birth.
A press release on the bill, H.B. 5595, stated that it “comes as reproductive rights continue to face unprecedented attacks across the country following the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision overturning Roe v. Wade.” The release framed enabling women to kill 9-month-old unborn babies as heroically “strengthen[ing] protections for patients and providers, ” as “Trump and state legislatures continue to push abortion bans.”
Healey posted a picture with an “Abortion is Health Care” sign on her X account with the caption, “No matter what Donald Trump does, we will protect your reproductive freedom.”
A separate post stated that “as long as I’m Governor, abortion will remain safe, legal and accessible in Massachusetts,” changing the Bill Clinton-popularized adage that abortion should be “safe, legal, and rare.”
The Senate bill sponsor, Robyn Kennedy, D-Ma., likewise portrayed actions by the Trump administration as the reason for the law. “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,” she said.
In contrast to the smiling faces and applause that filled Healey’s office as she inked the bill, multiple legislators expressed shock when the bill cleared the House. Rep. Kelley Pease, R-Mass., said to the press, “I think most of our caucus was [blindsided]. It’s like, where did this [bill] come from?” The Senate also sped up the process, “fast tracking” the bill and avoiding the “full committee process” to get it onto Healey’s desk before the legislative session ended.
When the bill passed the House last month, no Republicans supported it, but neither did 10 Democrats. Rep. Alan Sylvia, D-Mass., openly stated why, telling a local paper:
Attempts to expand Abortion in Massachusetts from 24 weeks to birth is a yearly event. Abortion was once tolerated and is now celebrated. We do all we can in Massachusetts to save baby whales and stray cats yet we murder thousands of unborn children and in many cases the taxpayer pays for it. I’m opposed to any expansion of abortion.
Rep. Justin Thurber, R-Mass., opposed the bill for different reasons. “I voted against H.5595 because it removes existing limits on abortions after 24 weeks, replacing clear medical criteria … with a system that lets a single physician approve the abortion based solely on their judgment,” he said. “This bill effectively allows abortion of potentially viable fetuses up to birth with no safeguards or second opinion requirements.”
Healey cited stories from Massachusetts couples unable to kill their children in late-term abortions as another “heartbreaking” reason why third-trimester abortions are purportedly necessary. “I’ve heard heartbreaking stories from women and families who were preparing to welcome a healthy baby into their family, only to receive devastating news later in their pregnancy,” she said. “Instead of being able to rely on the doctors they knew and trusted at home, they were forced to travel hundreds of miles and pay out of their pockets while navigating unimaginable grief.”
Present behind Healey as she signed H.B. 5595 were Kate Dineen and Alex Lawton, a Boston couple whose story became the poster child for the law. In 2021, Dineen’s son suffered a stroke in utero at 33 weeks, well into the third trimester. Dineen refused to carry her son to term but could not get an abortion in Massachusetts at the time, ostensibly because of the ban on abortions after 24 weeks. So, Dineen and Lawton traveled to Maryland for a dangerous $10,000 abortion.
Dineen and Lawton described feeling like “fugitives fleeing our home state,” while trying to find a way to end the life of their child. At Healey’s press conference for the abortion law, Dineen stated that Massachusetts was “righting this wrong once and for all.” Dineen attended the signing also as a current board member of Reproductive Equity Now (REN), a New England-based pro-abortion activist group that backed the bill.
Among other supporters of the abortion-up-to-birth measure, the press release quoted Dominique Lee, president and CEO of the Planned Parenthood League of Massachusetts. She stated that “passage of this law brings us one step closer to realizing true reproductive freedom in Massachusetts,” but she did not explain what could be the next step in autonomous liberation after legalizing abortion through all nine months. Lee also said that H.B. 5595 stopped “endangering the lives of pregnant people.”
Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America President Marjorie Dannenfelser condemned Healey and the state of Massachusetts in a press release Monday. “It should shock the conscience that tens of thousands of unborn Americans are barbarically dismembered limb by limb and torn apart every single year. Sadly, that number will only increase with Gov. Healey’s approval of the Abortion Up Until Birth Bill,” she said. “The GOP must abandon the ‘leave it to the states’ position — a stance that permits egregious late-term abortion laws like this one — and advance national protections for unborn children. “
