A new bill that would drastically expand abortion in Massachusetts is likely to pass, despite being considered by pro-lifers to be even more extreme than New York’s recent pro-abortion law. Senate Bill 1209, An Act to Remove Obstacles and Expand Abortion Access, nicknamed the ROE Act, is being celebrated by the abortion industry for doing away with most abortion restrictions, even though most Americans support them.
In addition to adding the “right” to get an abortion into state law, the new bill would overturn existing parental consent laws, allowing minors to undergo abortions without their parents’ approval. It also removes a currently existing 24-hour waiting period and provides coverage to get abortions in case their insurance plans don’t cover abortion. It even removes language defining the baby as an unborn child from the moment of implantation.
Polling from Marist and Gallup has shown that Americans support significant restrictions on abortion, including parental consent laws and waiting periods. Most Americans also want abortion banned after the first trimester. While abortion organizations like NARAL are celebrating this new law, it’s shockingly out of touch with what Americans actually want.
READ: New poll reveals 75 percent of Americans want abortion restrictions
But what may perhaps be the most disturbing part of this law is that is allows late-term abortion for virtually any reason. As the text of the bill reads, abortion should be committed before 24 weeks, but can be committed afterwards too (emphasis added), based on the judgment of the individual who stands to make money from it.
A physician, acting within their lawful scope of practice, may perform an abortion when, according to the physician’s best medical judgment based on the facts of the patient’s case, the patient is beyond twenty-four weeks from the commencement of pregnancy and the abortion is necessary to protect the patient’s life or physical or mental health, or in cases of lethal fetal anomalies, or where the fetus is incompatible with sustained life outside the uterus. Medical judgment may be exercised in the light of all factors—physical, emotional, psychological, familial, and the person’s age—relevant to the well-being of the patient.
This echoes Roe v. Wade’s partner decision, Doe v. Bolton, which has much of the same language, and allows abortion for virtually any reason at all.
This also means that preborn children will be subjected to brutal, violent abortion procedures after they already are capable of feeling pain.
The bill currently is backed by 51 sponsors, and has the weight of the abortion industry behind it — Planned Parenthood, NARAL, the ACLU Massachusetts, and more, are all publicly lobbying for the bill to be passed. It will be heard next week, June 17th, at the Boston State House. Considering that even the pro-abortion governor of Massachusetts has publicly said he does not support this bill, however, the legislature may need to work to obtain enough votes to override a potential veto.
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