Massachusetts Passes Bill To Legalize Unlimited Abortion Up To Birth

BOSTON — The Massachusetts Senate has given final approval to legislation eliminating the need for specific medical justifications for abortion past 24 weeks, opening the door to effectively unlimited abortion up to birth once signed by Democrat Gov. Maura Healey.

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Under current state law, an abortion may only be committed past 24 weeks if a physician deems it “necessary to preserve the life of the patient”; “necessary to preserve the patient’s physical or mental health”; “warranted because of a lethal fetal anomaly or diagnosis”; or “warranted because of a grave fetal diagnosis that indicates that the fetus is incompatible with sustained life outside of the uterus without extraordinary medical interventions.”

Such exceptions, pro-lifers have long warned, give abortionists ample wiggle room to authorize late-term abortions under false pretenses. But H. 5595 would do away with even those conditions, replacing the language with “an abortion may be performed by a physician based upon the professional judgment of the physician.” It would also add language that “No medical review process shall override the professional judgment of a treating physician and a patient or the patient’s health care proxy to provide an abortion consistent with” the new section.

LifeSiteNews reported last month the bill passed the House, and it has since cleared the Senate as well, now requiring only the radically pro-abortion governor’s signature to become law.

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“Not one legislator who voted for this has been brave enough to acknowledge the truth, the inconvenient fact that this bill allows heinous dismemberment abortions on perfectly healthy and viable babies,” responded Massachusetts Citizens for Life president Myrna Maloney Flynn. “It is accepted science that an unborn baby’s nervous system is developed enough at 24 weeks of pregnancy so that the baby can feel pain. By passing this bill, Massachusetts lawmakers have decided that an abortionist can crush the skull of any infant, then tear that baby apart, limb by limb.”

Abortion defenders have long attempted to downplay late-term abortions as rare bordering on nonexistent, while opposing any attempt to restrict them. But the facts show they are a very real problem.

According to data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC) and pro-abortion Guttmacher Institute reviewed by the pro-life Charlotte Lozier Institute (CLI), while more than 90% of abortions occur in the first trimester, more than 50,000 abortions a year take place after 15 weeks (almost four months into pregnancy), and approximately 10,000 after 20 weeks (five months).

Further, contrary to pro-abortion narratives, most of these abortions are not sought for extreme medical emergencies. A 2013 Guttmacher report admitted “data suggests that most women seeking later terminations are not doing so for reasons of fetal anomaly or life endangerment,” and notorious late-term abortionist Warren Hern’s own published data found that fetal abnormalities ranged from just a fifth to a third of his patients – and that the most common of those “abnormalities” was Down syndrome, a condition that is neither a death sentence nor even a guarantee of an unhappy life.

Yet, for years, congressional Democrats have consistently voted against the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act, which would ban most abortions after five months.