BOSTON, MA — Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey signed a new law to strengthen the state's abortion protections.
The new legislation "comes as reproductive rights continue to face unprecedented attacks across the country following the U.S. Supreme Court's decision overturning Roe v. Wade," according to a media release from the governor's office.
"While President Trump and state legislatures continue to push abortion bans, Massachusetts has strengthened protections for patients and providers and expanded access to reproductive health care," the release said. "This legislation builds on those efforts by ensuring patients can continue to receive compassionate, medically appropriate care in Massachusetts during some of the most difficult moments of their lives."
"I've heard heartbreaking stories from women and families who were preparing to welcome a healthy baby into their family, only to receive devastating news later in their pregnancy," Healey said in the release.
"Instead of being able to rely on the doctors they knew and trusted at home, they were forced to travel hundreds of miles and pay out of their pockets while navigating unimaginable grief," Healey said.
"That should never happen in Massachusetts," she said. "This law continues our efforts to have the strongest abortion protections in the country because in Massachusetts, we believe health care decisions should be made between women and their doctors."
Marjorie Dannenfelser, the president of Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, called for "national protections for unborn children."
"It should shock the conscience that tens of thousands of unborn Americans are barbarically dismembered limb by limb and torn apart every single year," Dannenfelser said in a statement. "Sadly, that number will only increase with Gov. Healey's approval of the Abortion Up Until Birth Bill."
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