Massachusetts abortion expansion takes effect, removing all gestational limits

Massachusetts has joined nine other states plus Washington, D.C., without gestational limits on abortion, after Gov. Maura Healey shielded a new state law from an anti-abortion referendum petition that could have prevented it from taking effect. Healey signed an emergency preamble Friday that put the law into effect immediately and protects it from suspension, preventing what she called “two more years of women being denied care.” Opponents can still pursue a repeal question on the November 2028 ballot. Signed into law by Healey over the summer, “An Act prioritizing patient access to care” lifts the 24-week restriction. It eliminates the exceptions that previously governed abortions after that point, which applied when the procedure was needed to preserve the pregnant patient’s life or physical or mental health, or when physicians had diagnosed the fetus with a lethal anomaly.

This excerpt comes from the named source. Read the original for the full reporting.