Massachusetts Passes Radical Bill for Abortions Up to Birth
The Massachusetts Senate on Friday approved a radical bill that allows abortions up until birth even on healthy unborn babies. The legislature sent the measure to Gov. Maura Healey, an abortion advocate who is expected to sign it into law.
The Senate passed the measure this afternoon after Democrats fast tracked the measure to bypass the full committee process so the full body could pass the bill before the legislature adjourns today.
The legislation, House Bill 5595, passed the overwhelmingly Democrat House on July 22 by a vote of 119-33. Under current state law, abortions are allowed up to 24 weeks of pregnancy, although weak exceptions essentially allow it up to birth.
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Abortions after that point are permitted only when the mother’s life or health is threatened (which could mean anything), or if the baby is unlikely to survive outside the womb. The new bill shifts the criteria for late-term abortions from that list of specific medical conditions to a more flexible standard based solely on the abortionist approving the abortion.
It would allow abortions to be carried out on babies at any gestational age after 24 weeks for any reason.
Second- and third-trimester abortions are generally done by dismemberment or labor induction. The latter may result in a live birth if the abortionist has not first delivered a lethal injection into the baby’s heart (“fetal demise”), which many admit they do not. According to the Charlotte Lozier Institute, over 60,000 abortions occur after 15 weeks each year – a point by which science shows the baby feels pain.
Pro-life advocates warn this effectively removes all remaining limits and permits the killing of viable unborn children right up to the point of birth.
“This bill basically allows abortion at any time of the pregnancy and for any reason, so it is absolutely egregious,” said Michael King, president of the Massachusetts Family Institute. He noted that the measure would also “take 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.”
Massachusetts Citizens for Life President Myrna Maloney Flynn said the bill does nothing to help women facing genuine complications.
“Women experiencing unimaginable, heart wrenching pregnancy complications absolutely deserve all the support they need, but that support is not what this bill provides,” Flynn remarked. “Instead, this bill ensures increased abortion industry profits and taxpayer-funded late-term procedures.”
She highlighted that the legislation allows a single doctor “to subjectively decide that any unborn infant can be killed in or outside of a hospital.”
SBA Pro-Life America President Marjorie Dannenfelser mourned the news of the extreme law passing:
“Massachusetts already allows abortion in the first 24 weeks, but that isn’t enough for Democrats whose party holds the position of no limits on abortion whatsoever. If Gov. Healey signs this bill into law, Massachusetts will join 10 states and Washington, D.C. with an all-trimester abortion policy where babies are killed after the point they can survive outside of the womb.
“These extreme laws that only 10% of Americans support are enabled by the ‘states-only’ philosophy on abortion. The GOP must abandon the failed ‘leave it to the states’ position and move the country toward a national protection for unborn children across this nation.”
Supporters claimed the change is needed so women do not have to travel out of state.
Medical experts reject the idea that abortion is ever 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,” said Christina Francis, a board-certified OB-GYN and CEO of the American Association of Pro-Life Obstetricians and Gynecologists. In true emergencies, she explained, a physician must separate the mother from the baby when necessary, but that 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 signed into law, Massachusetts would become the 11th state plus the District of Columbia with no limits on abortion.
The U.S. is 1 of 8 countries in the world along with China that allows abortion at any point, according to a 2024 study. Another study completed in 2024 shows 46 of 50 countries in Europe limit abortion after 15 weeks.
