MFI is celebrating wins for life and for the protection of children in education at the end of the Massachusetts legislative session! The final day of the formal session for the Massachusetts House and Senate was set to end at midnight on Wednesday, July 31st. However, by Thursday morning, legislators had pulled an all-nighter, with House members finishing at 9:19 a.m. and Senate members at 9:57 a.m. While we are disappointed to report that the Parentage Equality Act passed and is expected to be signed by the Governor, we are thrilled to announce that three anti-life bills and the Sex Ed Mandate were not passed. Two of the anti-life bills were sent to study which effectively means they are dead, and Physician-Assisted Suicide and the Sex Ed Mandate didn’t make it out of committee.
MFI, alongside our allies and supporters like you, made our voices heard on Beacon Hill. Our collective advocacy efforts, including testifying at the State House, making phone calls, sending emails, and meeting with legislators, played a crucial role in defeating several bills that threatened life and the well-being of children. We are deeply grateful for all the Bay Staters who stood up to defend the unborn, the elderly, and children in education. Read below to learn more about each bill.
Pregnancy Resource Center Gag Rule – H.377 / S.174 An Act to protect patient privacy and prevent unfair and deceptive advertising of pregnancy related services
This bill aimed to censor the speech of pro-life pregnancy resource centers (PRCs) and would have made it more difficult for them to do their vital work for women and babies. If passed this bill would have violated the First Amendment free speech rights of pregnancy resource centers by enforcing undefined rules regarding their messaging. This would have resulted in cost-prohibitive fines for simply advertising the services they provide to help women and children in need and would have threatened the existence of these charitable centers. Undoubtedly, this unfair bill would have benefited Big Abortion at the expense of vulnerable mothers.
Because of MFI’s efforts, along with a growing pro-life coalition in Massachusetts, PRCs will be protected from these arbitrary and biased regulations!
The Radical Abortion Expansion Bill – H.1599 / S.1114 An Act enhancing access to abortion care
This radical bill would have removed nearly all restrictions on abortion in Massachusetts, allowing girls of any age to obtain abortions without parental consent. It would have also eliminated conscientious objections to performing abortions for medical professionals and taken away safety regulations for dangerous late-term abortions.
Current law requires parental consent or a judge’s permission for abortions when the pregnant girl is under 16 years of age. 16 is also the legal age of consent for sexual activity in MA, which means this new provision would specifically remove protections for victims of statutory rape, making it exponentially easier for sex traffickers and child rapists to hide their crimes by forcing their victims to obtain abortions. Additionally, it would have required school-based health centers to keep information or treatment related to minor students’ abortions confidential from parents.
Equally as shocking, this bill would have prohibited doctors and nurses from claiming conscientious objections to providing abortions when an abortion would be “required to preserve the life of the mother.” However, the truth is that intentionally killing a baby inside the womb is never necessary to save the life of its mother. This bill would have created a risk of hospitals forcing doctors and nurses to violate their consciences by performing abortions when they are not truly necessary to save a mother’s life.
Finally, this bill would have removed all safeguards for late-term abortions by allowing any medical professional acting within their scope of practice to perform abortions after 24 weeks. Current Massachusetts law allows only doctors to approve and perform such late-term abortions. It would have also eliminated the requirement that facilities performing late-term abortions maintain life-saving equipment to save babies born alive or help women harmed by the dangerous procedures.
MFI organized multiple in-person meetings with legislators to discuss the harm this bill would bring to women and babies in the Commonwealth, and the violation of conscience rights for medical professionals. Many of you joined us in our efforts to persuade legislators to reject this horrific bill. Together we made a difference!
The Physician Assisted Suicide Act – H.2246 / S.1331 An Act relative to end of life options
This troubling bill aimed to legalize assisted suicide in Massachusetts. In 2012, voters in our Commonwealth rejected physician-assisted suicide through a state-wide referendum. Similarly, in 2022, the MA Supreme Court refused to recognize a right to assisted suicide in our Constitution. Despite these clear rejections, the pro-suicide lobby continued to push for the legalization of assisted suicide in Massachusetts with this bill.
Physician-assisted suicide invites abuse and creates a slippery slope toward devaluing life. Devaluing life for some means devaluing life for all. Physician-assisted suicide is never necessary and always ends a unique and valuable human life.
Once again, MFI and our faithful supporters successfully petitioned elected officials to protect the most vulnerable among us and to stop this dangerous and degrading bill.
The Sex Ed Mandate – H.544 / S.2686 An Act relative to healthy youth
This overreaching bill which has been introduced multiple times would have given complete control over local sex education curricula to an unelected bureaucracy at the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) and mandated its radical new Comprehensive Health and Physical Education Framework for districts teaching sex ed.
If passed, this bill would have removed the ability of local school districts to decide for themselves what and when to teach the children in their community about sex, based on the unique needs of their student populations and desires of parents. Instead, all power would have been given to DESE to mandate the teaching of highly graphic sexual content outlined in its controversial Framework to young students. Examples of the topics included in DESE’s Framework for various grade levels are:
- Students in grades 3-5 learn they can change genders.
- Students in grades 6-8 analyze their readiness for sexual activity.
- Students in grades 9-12 consider the “benefits” of sexual behavior.
Because of MFI’s advocacy and our outreach efforts through the Massachusetts Informed Parents Facebook group, which educates a broad demographic of parents on issues in K-12 schools, the Sex Ed Mandate has been defeated once again. MFI, along with thousands of parents and concerned citizens united to ensure local control over curricula and maintain the freedom for individual school districts to reject DESE’s unhealthy Framework.
The Parentage Equality Act – H.4672 / S.4750 An act to ensure legal parentage equality
Sadly, this alarming bill was passed unanimously by both the House and the Senate and is expected to be signed into law by Governor Healey. This harmful bill will deprive children of their right to know their biological mother and/or father and turn children into a commodity that can be bought and sold. LGBT-identifying couples who are not capable of producing children together will now be empowered to bypass the rights of children to their natural mother and father and purchase babies through the use of IVF and surrogacy procedures.
Additionally, it will strip all language that mentions mothers and fathers from parentage law and replace it with non-gendered references such as “person who gives birth,” “other parent,” or “genetic source.”
Patience Griswold of Them Before Us, an organization committed to protecting children’s rights stated, “Children have a right to be born free, not bought and sold. No amount of saccharine wording can mask the fact that the ‘Parentage Equality’ bill monetizes women’s bodies and turns children into products.”
Read here and here to better understand the implications of this horrific bill.
We are immensely grateful for the legislative victories for life and the defeat of the Sex Ed Mandate this session and for your unwavering support and active engagement in our advocacy efforts. Your dedication and commitment have made a significant impact, helping us protect the values we hold dear. Together, we have shown that when we stand united, we can achieve remarkable victories for the protection of life and the preservation of our fundamental freedoms, one win at a time. Thank you for being an essential part of our mission and for advancing our cause with such passion and resolve!
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