HOUSE DEMOCRATS ADVANCED LEGISLATION Tuesday removing restrictions to abortion later in pregnancy, stripping a four-pronged framework that was included in the 2022 shield law that looked to safeguard access to reproductive care.
The one-page bill (H 2370) the House Ways and Means Committee polled out Tuesday morning would eliminate the existing criteria that allows for abortions to be performed 24 weeks or later into a pregnancy. Instead, the bill states that “an abortion may be performed by a physician based upon the professional judgment of the physician.”
The House is slated to vote on the bill during a formal session Wednesday, Speaker Ron Mariano and Rep. Aaron Michlewitz announced.
It cleared the House Ways and Means Committee on a 23-6 vote. Republican Reps. John Marsi, Joseph McKenna, Kelly Pease, Todd Smola, Alyson Sullivan-Almeida, and Steven Xiarhos voted against moving the bill out of committee. Reps. Michael Chaisson and Marcus Vaughn reserved their rights. Reps. Rodney Elliott, Russel Holmes, and Chynah Tyler took no action in the poll.
“This legislation is about ensuring that in Massachusetts, reproductive health care decisions are made exclusively by the patient and her doctor — unencumbered by a legal framework that, in practice, isn’t always capable of accounting for the complexity and uncertainty inherent to pregnancy-related health care,” Mariano and House Ways and Means Chair Michlewitz said in a statement. “Informed by physicians in Massachusetts with patients who have had to leave the Commonwealth to receive medical care as a result of current law, these reforms will ensure that Massachusetts remains steadfast in our commitment to protecting a woman’s right to choose.”
Under the existing framework, abortions later in pregnancy can only be performed if necessary to preserve the patient’s life, necessary to preserve the patient’s physical or mental health, warranted because of a lethal fetal anomaly or diagnosis, or warranted because of a “grave fetal diagnosis.” The wording of those guardrails were a focal point of conference committee negotiations in 2022, as lawmakers passed the state’s first shield law in response to the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade.
“We look forward to continued conversations with the Membership about this critical issue, and to passing this important legislation tomorrow,” Mariano and Michlewitz said.
The Massachusetts Family Institute said the bill “seeks to remove virtually all remaining protections in Massachusetts for unborn babies and their mothers.” In an email blast, the group said the bill would “eliminate meaningful limitations and accountability for late-term abortions” and “expand abortion access at a stage when unborn children are capable of feeling pain and surviving outside the womb.”
The Senate last month passed a bill aimed at bolstering investments in primary care, boosting access to care and growing the workforce. House leaders have not joined that push and Mariano has given voice to surfacing legislation addressing prescription drug issue.
Health Care Financing Committee co-chair Rep. John Lawn has said the House is working on reforms for pharmacy benefit managers.
