More than 113,000 of you made your voices heard this fall. In just a few weeks, families, parishes, and churches across the Commonwealth gathered more than double the signatures needed to put Chapter 188 on hold until the voters could decide. It was a remarkable display of grassroots conviction.
On Friday, Governor Healey answered that conviction with a single stroke of her pen. Hours after the signatures were filed, she issued an emergency preamble that forces the law into effect and strips the petition of its power to suspend it. The “emergency” she declared did not exist in August when she signed the bill. It appeared only after the people of Massachusetts spoke.
This is not the end. Voters will still decide whether to repeal this law in November 2028, and MFI will be standing with you every step of the way. If you signed, collected signatures, or prayed for this effort, thank you.
Read the full statement from the Compassionate Care Coalition below.
Press Release: Governor Healey Overrides 113,000 Voters to Protect Extremist Abortion Law
Compassionate Care Coalition: voters will still decide repeal in November 2028
MASSACHUSETTS — Governor Maura Healey has overridden the effort of more than 113,000 Massachusetts voters, signing an emergency preamble that forces Chapter 188 of the Acts of 2026 into effect and defeats the petition drive to suspend it. The Compassionate Care Coalition, which led that drive, said today that voters will still decide the law’s repeal in November 2028.
Under the Massachusetts Constitution, a new law does not take effect for 90 days. That window exists so citizens can petition to put the law on hold until the voters themselves decide. Governor Healey signed Chapter 188 in August, and the Coalition needed 49,716 certified signatures to suspend it.
The people of Massachusetts answered. In a matter of weeks, volunteers across the Commonwealth gathered more than 113,000 signatures by hand and in person, in their parishes, churches and communities. That is more than double the number required. The Coalition delivered them to the Secretary of the Commonwealth’s office on the morning of Friday, November 6, the day of the deadline.
Only then did Governor Healey act. She waited until the Coalition’s filing with the Secretary’s office was complete and the effort had succeeded. Then, at the end of the day on Friday, as the news cycle closed, she issued her emergency preamble. That declaration puts the law into effect immediately and strips the petition of its power to suspend it. With one signature of her own, the Governor set aside the signatures of more than 113,000 of her constituents.
The timing is disgraceful, and it gives the game away. If this were truly an emergency, the Governor could have said so on August 10, when she signed the bill. She did not. For nearly three months there was no emergency. One appeared only after the people of Massachusetts delivered the signatures to stop the law, and it was announced when the fewest people would be watching. The Coalition wants to know why Governor Healey did not attach an emergency preamble to this law the day she signed it.
“Governor Healey’s preamble reflects an utter disregard for the men and women she was elected to represent,” said Sam Miele, chairman of the Compassionate Care Coalition. “In a matter of a few weeks, more than 113,000 of her constituents went out of their way to oppose a highly controversial, deeply consequential law.”
“The petition drive is over, but Healey has overridden those constituents’ opposition by signing an emergency preamble that defeats our effort to suspend Chapter 188,” Miele said.
“She has not sufficiently explained the ’emergency’ that warrants her undemocratic rejection of the people’s will, because such an emergency does not exist — only weakness on her part,” Miele continued. “Healey clearly demonstrates how beholden she really is to the Massachusetts abortion lobby. Massachusetts voters will still vote on whether to repeal the law in November 2028.”
About the Compassionate Care Coalition
The Compassionate Care Coalition is a ballot committee organized to suspend and repeal Chapter 188 of the Acts of 2026 in Massachusetts, which the Coalition calls the Zero Safeguards Abortion Law. Learn more at repeal188.com.”
