Massachusetts has removed its 24-week gestational limit on abortion after Democratic Gov. Maura Healey signed House Bill 5595 into law Monday.
The new measure eliminates previous language requiring doctors performing abortions after 24 weeks to determine that the procedure was necessary to protect the mother’s life or health, involved a fetal anomaly, or concerned a fetus unable to survive outside the womb without extraordinary medical support.
Under the revised law, abortions after 24 weeks may be performed based on “the professional judgment of the physician,” prompting pro-life advocates to warn that abortion is now effectively permitted throughout pregnancy.
Massachusetts joins 10 other states and the District of Columbia in allowing abortion at any point in pregnancy: Alaska, Colorado, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, Oregon, Vermont and Washington.
National Right to Life President Carol Tobias accused Massachusetts of having “erased the final protections for unborn children who can feel pain and who could survive outside the womb.”
“At the very stage when premature babies are receiving lifesaving care in neonatal intensive care units, Massachusetts will permit abortionists to end the lives of children of the same age — and even older,” Tobias said in statement. “That is not compassion, and it is not health care. This law exposes the dishonesty behind the claim that no one supports abortion up until birth.”
“When lawmakers remove every objective limitation and authorize an abortion provider to decide whether an abortion may be performed at any point during pregnancy, abortion until birth is precisely what the law allows,” Tobias added.
Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America President Marjorie Dannenfelser also condemned the measure Monday.
“It should shock the conscience that tens of thousands of unborn Americans are barbarically dismembered limb by limb and torn apart every single year,” she said. “Sadly, that number will only increase with Gov. Healey’s approval of the Abortion Up Until Birth Bill.”
“The GOP must abandon the ‘leave it to the states’ position — a stance that permits egregious later-term abortion laws like this one — and advance national protections for unborn children,” she added. “Without a minimum national standard, the United States remains 1 of only 8 countries worldwide that allows abortion at any point in pregnancy. We must do all we can to turn the page on America’s ugly chapter on late-term abortion.”
According to a 2024 Charlotte Lozier Institute report, the other seven countries permitting abortion throughout pregnancy are Australia, Canada, China, Guinea-Bissau, Mexico, South Korea and Vietnam.
