Massachusetts Senate Votes To Strengthen Abortion Rights

BOSTON — On Wednesday, the Massachusetts Senate voted to adopt Amendment number 388 which provides enhanced protections for reproductive and gender-affirming health care in Massachusetts.

This measure will also protect out-of-state residents who travel to Massachusetts to seek these services - including abortion procedures under a budget amendment.

Senator Cindy Friedman, of Arlington, proposed this amendment to help protect healthcare providers from legal healthcare services like abortion procedures and gender-affirming surgeries. This includes doctors, nurses, psychologists, assistants, and social workers. The law would also ensure abortion remains a right in Massachusetts, keeping it protected if the federal rulings fall.

This amendment was pitched in a fight against Republican-led efforts in other states that would cut abortion access and limit treatment for transgender patients - like Texas or Ohio.

Earlier this month, a Supreme Court decision draft was leaked that would overrule the 1973 Roe v. Wade case that legalized abortion nationwide and could lead to abortion bans in states throughout the United States.

"We are now faced with a situation where another state, in-state laws enacted by their Legislature, is threatening the rights of law-abiding residents in our commonwealth for engaging in activities legal under our laws enacted by our duly elected Legislature here in Massachusetts," Sen. Friedman said Wednesday. "This is an egregious and direct attack on a state's ability to make their own laws and protect their own residents."

If Roe V. Wade did become overturned, Massachusetts residents would still be protected by the state-level ROE Act, which allows abortions after 24 weeks in cases with a fatal fetal anomaly and in situations when deemed necessary by a doctor.

Earlier this month Gov. Charlie Baker said he is "absolutely open to discussing protections" for reproductive health care providers, adding that he is "very concerned about what that means, not so much for people in Massachusetts, but for people in other states."

Read more: Massachusetts Leaders Pledge To Help Out-Of-State Abortion Patients

"The duly elected Legislature of Massachusetts has affirmed time and again that the people of the Commonwealth will have their fundamental rights preserved and protected here in our state, regardless of what happens at the federal level, or in any other state," Senate President Karen Spilka said in a statement released after the vote.