Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey approved a law that allows killing unborn babies up to the point of birth with nearly no oversight Monday. A plethora of “doctors” in white lab coats surrounded Healey as she inked the bill authorizing unwanted children to be pulled apart by forceps or poisoned.
One licensed health care professional, Lynn M. Yee, who serves with the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine, praised the new law, saying that it “prioritiz[ed] patient access to care,” while ignoring the human patient inside a woman’s body.
A year ago, Healey and her supporters celebrated different bills that protected animal life better than human life.
With the support of the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (MSPCA), Healey approved one bill titled “An Act Providing For the Humane Protection of Animals.” It prohibited permanently removing a puppy or kitten less than eight weeks of age from its mother and various unregulated sales of animals. The MSPCA commented at the time that the bill was necessary to prevent “health problems” in young animals.
The second bill, titled “An Act Prohibiting Inhumane Feline Declawing,” made it illegal to declaw a cat for any reason besides “rare situations such as cancer in the nail bed or other conditions that jeopardize the cat’s health.” Fines ranged from $1,000 for a first offense to more than $2,000 for repeat offenses. The MSPCA described the “inhumane” procedure as “akin to amputating a person’s fingertips at the first knuckle.” The surgery can cause “serious pain” or “complications,” it said.
The state of Massachusetts currently celebrates removing a human child from its mother far before eight weeks and condones causing unborn children excruciating pain that ends in death. Furthermore, Massachusetts’ gestational surrogacy law allows newborns to be taken from their gestational mother as early as birth, and the adoption law gives the biological mother only four days with her child.
Founder of Them Before Us Katy Faust believes left-wing governors like Healey protect animals while discarding children “because they want to have the appearance of compassion, as long as it does not infringe on their sexual liberty,” she told The Federalist. “Animals do not interrupt your sexual identity, your sexual desire, your sexual agenda the way children do. So, they want the appearance of compassion and tolerance, but not at the cost of actually adjusting their life.”
Before either the current abortion law or the animal cruelty laws reached Healey’s desk, they passed through the House with the help of the same people. The Federalist found that more than 40 Democrat House representatives co-sponsored one or both of the animal protection laws and also voted in favor of the abortion law.
In less than 90 days, Healey’s abortion law will take effect and make Massachusetts the 10th state to allow for abortion up to birth, joining Alaska, Colorado, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, Oregon, and Vermont. Many of the governors of those radical states also passed various forms of animal protection laws.
Former New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy, a Democrat, signed the state’s Freedom of Reproductive Choice Act into law in 2022, shortly before the Dobbs decision. The law provided “the right to contraception, the right to terminate a pregnancy, and the right to carry a pregnancy to term” to all New Jerseyans. The wording of the bill also made abortion up to birth a state constitutional “right.”
Murphy also passed a law banning “use of wild or exotic animals in traveling animal acts,” titled “Nosey’s law” after an abused show elephant. He also passed a bill “prohibiting the leasing of dogs and cats” with a fine of up to $ 10,000 or more and labeled creating animal fighting gear as a third-degree criminal offence. Another bill he signed prohibited “the sale of cosmetics that were developed or manufactured using animal tests,” because the testing caused “suffering needlessly.”
Current Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer passed various pro-abortion laws and “helped secure the historic passage of Michigan’s Prop 3, which enshrined the right to reproductive freedom — including abortion — in the state constitution,” according to Reproductive Freedom for All. She also passed a 2023 law that required lab cats and dogs to be put up for adoption before euthanasia.
Colorado Gov. Jared Polis has signed bills enshrining abortion laws in the state’s constitution and allowing taxpayer-funded killing of babies. He also signed a bill protecting show animals from harm. “In Colorado, we advocate for everyone, people and animals alike,” he said while praising the bill, adding that these animals “deserve fair treatment.”
New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham applauded the state Supreme Court’s 2025 decision to strike down abortion bans, saying, “Let me be crystal clear: as long as I’m governor, New Mexico will fight any attempt to limit reproductive healthcare access.” That same year, she created a $5 million program that aimed to reduce animal euthanasia.
Lastly, Republican Vermont Gov. Phil Scott passed two bills shielding transgender mutilation surgeries and abortion in the state, yet refused to veto a bill banning “coyote-killing contests” and established a division of animal welfare within the state’s Department of Public Safety. Project Coyote urged Scott to pass the coyote bill because the hunting practice “perpetuate[s] a culture of violence and send the message to children that life has little value.”
Faust explained to the Federalist why human rights seem to fall when animal rights are prioritized. “Something is going to take the top value spot, and if it is animals, then it won’t be humans,” she said, “you just have to choose what is at the top of your hierarchy of values.”
Most conservatives have no issue with supporting laws that generally protect animals. One poll by Data for Progress found that 83 percent of Democrats and 77 percent of Republicans believe “preventing animal cruelty is a matter of personal moral concern.” Another animal treatment study found that 77 percent of voters in 2022 supported federal legislation to end puppy mills, which participate in unethical breeding practices.
“It is a problem if you are doing things that are cruel to animals,” Faust noted,” but if you’re going to elevate that above the rights of a child to not be burned in utero or dismembered prior to birth, that reveals something about your world view … value[ing] the discomfort of animals above the lives of children.”
Placing animal rights above those of man, the being made in the image of God, is a massive perversion of the created order. G.K. Chesterton put it bluntly, “Wherever there is animal worship there is human sacrifice.” While pro-abortion pet owners are probably not bowing down to their cats or dogs, treating them better than the Imago Dei in a woman’s womb is still a form of idolatrous worship.
