Beacon Hill lawmakers overwhelmingly voted Wednesday on a bill to strengthen abortion protections for providers and patients throughout Massachusetts, in a bid to codify into law Gov. Charlie Baker’s executive order that was issued within hours of the Supreme Court ruling that overturned Roe v. Wade.
Abortion care providers here in the commonwealth would be shielded from adverse actions, including civil and criminal lawsuits, from states where such reproductive health care services are banned, including Texas and Oklahoma. Providers can also ensure their home addresses are kept confidential.
Those providing or receiving care in Massachusetts have the option to countersue over abusive litigation, according to the legislation that’s now up to the Massachusetts Senate to consider.
The Massachusetts House of Representatives passed the bill in a 136-17 vote.
“Today we in Massachusetts tell other states who would deny women full equality to stay out of Massachusetts,” state Rep. Michael Day, the House chair of the Joint Committee on the Judiciary, said on the House floor. “While your women seeking to exercise their fundamental rights and to make their own health care decisions will be welcomed here, you will not. And your attempts to reach into our state, our commonwealth, will be opposed and rejected at every turn.”
Rep. Sarah Peake said she used to jokingly say, “Well, it really matters where you live.” But as of Friday, a person’s place of residence has “very real” ramifications, particularly for women and members of the LGBTQ community, she said.
“Federal elections are important, and boy, these federal elections are going to be really important,” Peake, a Provincetown Democrat, said. “But maybe what matters more is what happens in the 50 state houses around this nation ... What we have seen is in state legislatures like those in Texas, Florida, Alabama, other states where they have pushed to narrow rights of people, where they have pushed to suppress voting, where they have pushed to narrow the rights of women, where they have pushed to narrow the rights of the queer community, they are incubators of repression.”
In the newly passed bill, providers won’t risk losing their credentials or being professionally disciplined for offering abortion or gender-affirming services so long as “they are lawful and consistent with good medical practice if they occurred entirely in the commonwealth.” Pharmacists, nurses, psychologists and social workers are protected in the House bill, too.
Law enforcement officials cannot cooperate with out-of-state or federal law agencies investigating abortion care in Massachusetts. And the governor is blocked from complying with extradition requests from other states tied to reproductive health care delivered in Massachusetts under the House bill.
Insurance providers cannot impose deductibles, copayments or other cost-sharing requirements tied to abortion or abortion-related care, according to the bill.
In another provision, the legislation creates a standing order allowing licensed pharmacists, following a training program, to provide emergency contraception.
Rep. Ann-Margaret Ferrante, in a powerful floor speech, said the Supreme Court has cast women as lowlier than second-class citizens, by stripping them of the ability to discern whether they want to become mothers. The decision instead treats women as vessels, said Ferrante, a Gloucester Democrat.
“You are a vessel for whatever is inside of you,” she said. “You are a vessel, perhaps, for an incomplete fetus. You are a vessel, perhaps, for a fetus that will not survive outside of the womb. You are a vessel for every injustice that may have occurred against your body, including incest, including rape. That’s what you are — and that’s all you are.”
During a strategy meeting earlier Wednesday in Boston, U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren commended the governor and Massachusetts Legislature for taking “terrific” steps to protect abortion rights. But more work must be done here and nationally, she said, including to crack down on crisis pregnancy centers and expand insurance coverage for reproductive health care.
Dr. Jennifer Childs-Roshak, the president and CEO of Planned Parenthood League of Massachusetts, said lawmakers and advocates have been “playing the long game” as she invoked the December 2020 passage of the ROE Act. In addition to provider protections and emergency contraception access, she said other pending strategies must extend to protecting people’s right to birth control and sex education.
“We cannot back down, either here in Massachusetts or I think beyond our borders,” Childs-Roshak said at the meeting with Sens. Warren and Ed Markey. “Friday was a sobering moment. When that decision came out, our call volume at our health centers doubled for folks inside the state still worried and folks from outside the state, and from the states that you would expect.”
But advocates swiftly celebrated the bill passage on Wednesday evening.
“Abortion access should never depend on where you live, who you are, or how much money you make,” Carol Rose, executive director of the ACLU of Massachusetts, said in a statement. “We are grateful that the Senate and House leaders are meeting this moment, and we urge them to continue to do all they can to promote reproductive freedom in Massachusetts.”
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