Lawmakers poised to pass bill expanding abortion access in Massachusetts

Lawmakers are poised to expand abortion access in Massachusetts despite the objections of Republican Gov. Charlie Baker after House members scraped together the margin needed to override his Christmas Eve veto.

The House voted 107-46 on Monday, barely earning the two-thirds majority needed for the override.

The Senate adjourned Monday without addressing the abortion bill but is expected to take it up on Tuesday. An override is likely as senators advanced an earlier version of the bill with a 32-8 majority.

The legislation will enshrine abortion rights in state law, lower the age allowed with telling the parents to 16 and allow abortions after 24 weeks of pregnancy in cases with a fatal fetal anomaly.

Baker, who is pro-choice, said he supported some of the bill but rejected lawmakers’ attempts to remove the need for judicial or parental consent for 16- and 17-year-olds seeking abortions. In amendments he returned to the Legislature, he also sought more restrictive language around late-term abortions.

“I cannot support the sections of this proposal that expand the availability of late-term abortions and permit minors age 16 and 17 to get an abortion without the consent of a parent or guardian,” he wrote in a letter to legislators earlier this month.

When lawmakers rejected his amendments the governor vetoed the bill on Christmas Eve, prompting promises of an override by House Speaker Robert DeLeo and drawing the ire of pro-choice supporters.

“Hoping that we would all be too busy to notice, Charlie Baker once again caved in to the extreme right-wing of his Republican Party by vetoing critical abortion access provisions,” Massachusetts Democratic Party Chairman Gus Bickford said at the time.

Baker’s veto, however, put him and state GOP Party Chairman Jim Lyons in rare alignment. The pair have publicly clashed on a variety of issues including the Transportation Climate Initiative and the handling of the coronavirus response.

Lyons in a statement on Monday lambasted the House’s move to overturn Baker’s veto.

“House Speaker Bob DeLeo picked Dec. 28, a holy day shared by millions in remembrance of the Day of the Holy Innocents, the mass-killing of martyred babies, to force an override vote to pass this sick legislation that effectively legalizes the killing of babies born alive following failed abortions,” the party said in a statement.

Anti-abortion activists followed up with a call out to supporters to “email, call, and send social media messages” to lawmakers.

“Your action and your voice this week will be vital for babies,” Mass Citizens for Life wrote in an email to supporters.

Legislative leaders propelled the measure forward to passage during the lame-duck session this fall in a budget bill amendment. For most of the two-year session, legislation referred to as the Roe Act sat before the Judiciary Committee untouched after a lengthy and heated hearing.

Pressure to act on the reproductive rights bill increased following the death of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg in September and as right-leaning anti-choice Justice Amy Coney Barrett was confirmed to court calling into question the precedent set in Roe v. Wade.

Herald wire services contributed to this report.

from Boston Herald https://ift.tt/3hnQF2c