Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey Shields Radical Up-to-Birth Abortion Law
Democrat Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey took emergency action last week to keep pro-life advocates and Catholics from repealing a barbaric new law that legalizes killing unborn babies in abortions up to birth in the state.
Healey, who identifies as lesbian and is a self-proclaimed Catholic, signed a bill on August 10 called the Prioritizing Patient Access to Care Act, which allows unborn babies to be aborted throughout pregnancy up until birth and struck down the state’s 24-week limit, which had exceptions for the life of the mother and deadly fetal diagnoses. Under the bill, doctors have the discretion to decide whether or not to perform a late-term abortion.
The governor posted a video showing herself surrounded by a gaggle of grinning women who applaud ecstatically as she signs the radical bill. Healey’s stamp of approval aligned Massachusetts with Alaska, Vermont, Oregon, New Mexico, Colorado, Minnesota, Michigan, Maryland, New Jersey, and Washington, DC, in allowing unborn babies to be aborted up to the moment of birth.
Pro-life opponents immediately got to work and gathered more than 113,000 signatures to challenge the law through a statewide referendum in 2028. They also collected more than double the 50,000 signatures needed to suspend the legislation while the ballot measure process continues.
In response, Healey issued an emergency preamble on November 6, blocking efforts to suspend the law ahead of the 2028 elections, NBC 10 News reported.
“The Act does not displace applicable professional standards of care, informed consent obligations, licensing requirements, or facility oversight,” she wrote. “Under the Act, abortions after 24 weeks will continue to be extremely rare.”
The Compassionate Care Coalition is behind the “Repeal188” effort, named after the chapter of the law in which the new abortion law is found. The coalition is comprised of pro-life groups — including Massachusetts Citizens for Life, Massachusetts Family Action, Massachusetts Family Institute, Democrats for Life of America, and Cape Cod Pro-Life Alliance — and is backed by Catholic bishops in the state.
“Governor Healey’s preamble reflects an utter disregard for the men and women she was elected to represent. In a matter of a few weeks, more than 113,000 of her constituents went out of their way to oppose a highly controversial, deeply consequential law,” the Repeal188 petition website reads.
“The petition drive is over, but Healey has overridden those constituents’ opposition by signing an emergency preamble that defeats our effort to suspend Chapter 188,” the statement continues. “She has not sufficiently explained the ’emergency’ that warrants her undemocratic rejection of the people’s will, because such an emergency does not exist — only weakness on her part. Healey clearly demonstrates how beholden she really is to the Massachusetts abortion lobby. Massachusetts voters will still vote on whether to repeal the law in November 2028.”
The coalition announced in late October that it had submitted the signatures to the Secretary of the Commonwealth, and that certification is pending. The announcement took place at a memorial at the State House representing the 49,450 babies killed in abortions in Massachusetts in 2024.
“The people of Massachusetts did not ask for abortion through all nine months, and in a matter of weeks they made that clear,” said Sam Miele, chairman of the Compassionate Care Coalition and director of Massachusetts Family Action. “We are grateful to every volunteer, pastor and parish staffer who carried a clipboard. Because of them, voters will have the final say.”
Archbishop Richard G. Henning of Boston and fellow Massachusetts Bishops William D. Byrne of Springfield, Edgar M. da Cunha of Fall River, and Robert J. McManus of Worcester were among the faith leaders supporting the repeal effort, OSV News reported.
“There’s still a significant number of people here in this state that — even if they might see themselves as pro-choice to one degree or another — believe that this bill was too extreme and unjust,” Henning told the Catholic news outlet in October.
Bishop McManus called the law “horribly immoral” and “tantamount to infanticide.”
“I think our people said, ‘Enough is enough,’” McManus said. “Even people who might, in casual conversation, describe themselves as pro-choice — I think some of them had examined their consciences on this issue and supported the Church’s effort to end this craziness. I think in this case, the devil overplayed his hand.”
After Healey’s declaration, the Archdiocese of Boston posted a statement to its website on November 7 rejecting the governor’s reasoning for upholding the radical abortion law.
“We respectfully and passionately disagree that abortion, the taking of human life, may be considered health care,” the statement reads. “We also disagree that there is an emergency requiring the further expansion of the existing and already radically permissive law.”
“Our work continues as we heed the call of the Gospel to defend life at all stages. We pray for our Governor and legislators that the Lord may inspire wise and compassionate leadership. We call upon all to support families, especially those in crisis, and to build a culture that supports and loves every member of the human family,” the statement continues in part.
After Healey signed the bill, CatholicVote President and CEO Kelsey Reinhardt sent a letter to the Catholic Bishops of Massachusetts calling for Healey to be excommunicated and asking for the Church to provide clarification and guidance to people of faith.
“When a Catholic governor signs legislation permitting abortion until birth, celebrates that signing publicly, and receives no response from her bishops beyond a press statement, the lesson absorbed by the faithful is not subtle,” Reinhardt wrote. “It is this: This is tolerable and within the range of what a Catholic may do. The line is somewhere further along, and we do not yet know where it is.”
“That lesson is wrong. And it is being taught every day that it goes uncorrected,” she added. “The integrity of Catholic witness in public life, and the credibility of the claim that Catholic faith is a moral architecture that shapes how one exercises power, depends on the willingness of shepherds to act as shepherds when it matters most.”
Healey later responded to those calls, her office telling the Boston Herald that she is a “governor for all people of all faiths.”
“As a proud Catholic, she believes everyone is deserving of kindness and empathy, especially in their time of need,” the spokesperson reportedly said.
“She believes that those women and families should have been able to get the care they needed here in Massachusetts, and it was unfair to force them to travel to other states,” the spokesperson continued.
Healey spokesperson Jacqueline Manning told Boston.com ahead of the emergency declaration that the governor “continues to monitor the referendum process and evaluate options,” referring to the pro-life opposition effort.
“This law is for parents facing some of the most painful and devastating circumstances imaginable and making sure these decisions are made between a woman and her doctor,” Manning claimed.
Healey, who was reelected on November 3, similarly issued an emergency preamble to uphold a 2024 gun-control law that was the target of a failed repeal attempt on the ballot this year.
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