BOSTON — Beacon Hill leaders are pledging to defend and expand access to abortion in Massachusetts as the nation marks the second anniversary of the Supreme Court’s ruling overturning federal protections for the procedure.
On Monday, Gov. Maura Healey signed an executive order reaffirming that the state constitution, laws and court rulings guarantee the right to an abortion, in Massachusetts and that health care providers are required to ensure access to “life-saving and emergency” abortions.
Healey said despite laws protecting access to abortion, women’s reproductive health is “under threat” from Republicans and conservative groups in the wake of the high court’s 2022 Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision, which overturned the federal legal right to an abortion.
“This impacts everyone in Massachusetts,” Healey, a Democrat, said in remarks at a statehouse event commemorating the court’s ruling. “All of this stuff that is happening on a national level impacts our state. It’s the reason hundreds of women have had to travel great distances to Massachusetts to get care.”
Attorney General Andrea Campbell echoed those sentiments and noted that the conservative-led Supreme Court is poised to rule on an Idaho case that will decide what happens when pregnant women show up to the hospital with medical emergencies in states that have strict bans on abortion.
“This is a life or death issue,” Campbell, a Boston Democrat, said in remarks at Monday’s event. “This is a human rights issue, and everyone should care.”
Following the Supreme Court’s ruling, nearly two dozen states have banned or limited access to the procedure, according to the Guttmacher Institute, a national advocacy group. Others are considering restrictions, the group said. But anti-abortion groups are pushing for tighter restrictions on the procedure, including a nationwide ban, advocates say.
“Unfortunately, the Dobbs decision is not the end game,” Rebecca Hart Holder, executive director of Reproductive Equity Now, an advocacy group, said during Monday’s event. “It is a midpoint in the attack on our basic right to control our reproductive destiny.”
Abortion is legal in Massachusetts under a 2020 law, but advocates say the state has become a destination for women coming from other states that banned the procedure or tightened their laws following the Supreme Court’s ruling.
State leaders have also taken steps to shield providers and patients from potential lawsuits filed by groups of other states where abortion is now restricted.
But Democrats see the issue of birth control and abortion access as a wedge that could help incumbent President Joe Biden win his reelection bid in November and possibly help them take over control of the U.S. House of Representatives.
To be sure, former President Donald Trump has boasted on the campaign trail that his three Supreme Court appointees were pivotal in overturning Roe v. Wade, but the presumptive GOP nominee has repeatedly said states should make their own decisions on abortion policy.
Despite that, Biden has made the issue a key plank of his reelection bid and is expected to make abortion a topic in Thursday’s debate against Trump, arguing that Republicans are determined to ban abortion throughout the country.
“Donald Trump is the sole person responsible for this nightmare,” Biden said in a statement. “This is a man who brags about overturning Roe v. Wade, has called for women who access reproductive health care to be punished — and says he would rule as a dictator on day one.
“If given the chance, there is no question he will ban abortion nationwide, with or without the help of Congress,” Biden said.
Christian M. Wade covers the Massachusetts Statehouse for North of Boston Media Group’s newspapers and websites. Email him at cwade@cnhinews.com