BOSTON — Anti-abortion groups are eyeing the 2028 ballot with a proposal to repeal a recently approved expansion of the state’s late-term abortion law.
The group Massachusetts Citizens for Life announced Monday the Attorney General’s office has approved the group’s petition to ask voters in the 2028 election elections to repeal a law signed by Gov. Maura Healey in August lifting restrictions on abortions that are performed after 24 weeks.
The group has teamed up with other anti-abortion groups to create the Compassionate Care Coalition, a new ballot committee that will gather signatures from voters and raise money put the question on the ballot in two years.
Backers of the repeal effort say the new law lifting the exemptions, which goes into effect Nov. 9, will allow abortion until birth — even for healthy fetuses — and argue that late-term abortions can be more complex and risky for women. They’ve also criticized a provision allowing abortions to be performed outside of hospitals.
“Women deserve safe care and meaningful choices, and viable babies deserve protection,” Myrna Maloney Flynn, Citizens for Life’s president, said in a statement. “Our effort is about saving those lives and giving mothers and their babies more choices, not fewer.”
The measure faces several hurdles to the ballot, including the need to collect more than 37,000 certified signatures before Oct. 23 deadline. The coalition is also hoping to gather nearly 50,000 certified signatures to suspend the law while the referendum proceeds.
The legislation, titled Prioritizing Patient Access to Care Act, was approved by the Democratic-controlled state Legislature on the July 31, the final day of formal sessions, in a vote that went largely along party lines.
It leaves the decision to terminate a pregnancy after 24 weeks to the “professional judgment” of doctors.
The move to join about 10 other states that have lifted restrictions on late-term abortions comes as the Trump administration and Republicans and Congress are seeking to restrict access to the procedure in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2022 ruling overturning federal protections, Healey said.
Republican lawmakers voted against the bill, arguing that the state’s abortion laws are already too permissive.
Abortion is legal in Massachusetts under a 2020 law, and the state has some of the widest protections for abortion in the nation, which is making it a destination for women from New Hampshire and other states that are tightening their laws.
In 2020, Democrats who control the state Legislature pushed through a law that codified a woman’s right to get an abortion. The so-called ROE Act prohibits the state from banning abortion, allows the procedure after 24 weeks, and lowered the age of consent from a parent or judge to 16.
But advocates say the law didn’t consider unique medical situations that have forced many women to travel out of state for complicated late-term abortions.
“These heartbreaking situations occur more often than many people realize,” Healey said in remarks at August’s bill signing, where several women told their difficult stories. “We’re signing this law to so that new patients — people we don’t know or won’t meet — will be able to get the care that they need in Massachusetts.”
Christian M. Wade covers Massachusetts state government and politics for CNHI News and North of Boston Media Group’s newspapers and websites. Email him at cwade@cnhinews.com.