Yesterday, the MA State Senate passed its version of the Infanticide Act. As in the House, this was done as a “budget amendment.” When the state legislature took the extraordinary step of extending its legislative session from July 31st all the way to the end of the calendar year, we were assured that this was only to allow the extra time needed for essential legislation in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. Instead, within days of the election, this lame duck session inserted an extreme and controversial abortion expansion into a list of hundreds of amendments to the state’s budget. At a time when we are largely shutting down the Commonwealth (again) in response to a disease that has claimed the lives of 10,000 Bay Staters, these legislators are pulling out all the stops to expand a practice which routinely ends over 18,000 lives a year in Massachusetts. Does this blatant hypocrisy even occur to them? After a tumultuous summer of nationwide protests and riots, does no one on Beacon Hill see the fact that black babies are aborted at four times the rate of white babies every year in the Commonwealth as an egregious example of systemic racism?
These aren’t just rhetorical questions. Make your state representatives answer them. 49 members of the MA House voted against the Infanticide Act last week. If five more will join them, there would be a large enough minority to sustain a veto by Governor Baker. The legislation will likely reach his desk shortly before Thanksgiving, and that’s why it is imperative to call the Governor’s office at 617-725-4005 today and urge him to veto this amendment to the budget.
Fortunately, Governor Baker has recently signaled that he is displeased with the ROE Act’s passage, saying “putting policy in the budget was something that both leaders in the House and Senate said they would not do. And it’s pretty hard to argue that this isn’t a major policy initiative now in the budget.”
In April of last year, Governor Baker also made it clear he was not in favor of changing Massachusetts’ existing abortion laws. “I don’t support late-term abortions. I support current law here in Massachusetts. It’s worked well for decades for women and families here in Massachusetts and that’s what we support.”
This bill is expressly designed to increase late-term abortions after 24 weeks. Instead of limiting late-term abortions to when necessary to protect the mother from “substantial risk of grave impairment to her physical or mental health,” the new standard is simply the “best medical judgement” of the profit-seeking abortionist.
The bill also effectively removes the requirement for parental consent to abortion for girls under 18 with conflicting provisions: one lowers the age at which girls can get abortions without parental consent to 16, and a second provision eliminates the requirement for parental consent altogether.
The reason why this legislation has earned the moniker “Infanticide Act” is because it removes the requirement that an abortionist “shall” save the life of a baby born alive during a botched abortion and replaces it with the requirement to simply have life-saving equipment in the room with no obligation to use it.
You can find the specific details of the house version of this legislation here.
Finally, I strongly urge you to read yesterday’s interview with State Rep. Patricia Haddad on why she supports the abortion expansion. The distortions, half-truths, and self-justification in her reasoning are very revealing. Not only is this legislation awful, the wanton, shallow ignorance of those promoting it is appalling. Again, I urge you to call the Governor at 617-725-4005 and tell him he must veto this bill. Even if you can’t get through to a live person, please still leave a message. The fight is not over yet.
