Since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022, many states have responded by tightening restrictions on abortion. This month, Massachusetts moved in the opposite direction. Governor Maura Healey signed a law that makes it easier to terminate a pregnancy in the state.
Massachusetts law had broadly permitted abortion until 24 weeks of pregnancy. After that stage, though, a doctor could perform an abortion only if they found it necessary to preserve the woman’s life or physical or mental health, or if they felt that this was warranted because of a lethal fetal anomaly or diagnosis or because the fetus couldn’t survive outside the uterus without extraordinary medical interventions. The new law removes these specific restrictions attached to the 24-week threshold. Instead, doctors can simply use their professional judgment, consistent with accepted standards of medical care, in deciding whether to terminate a pregnancy.
Proponents of the new law assert that it will bolster the physician-patient relationship by allowing doctors to exercise their judgment without worrying about how to interpret a statute. It also will make it easier for Massachusetts residents to receive abortion care in their state, rather than traveling to another state with looser rules when they’re already suffering from great physical and mental distress. Opponents argue that the new law could result in the death of an unborn child when they could potentially survive outside the womb.
Massachusetts isn’t the only state to remove restrictions on abortion based on the stage of pregnancy. The new law, which takes effect in November, adds it to a group that also includes Alaska, Colorado, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, Oregon, Vermont, and Washington, D.C.
Historically, very few abortions have occurred past the first trimester of pregnancy. According to 2022 data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, for example, only 7.2 percent of all abortions in the U.S. that year occurred at 14 weeks of pregnancy or later. Only 1.1 percent occurred at 21 weeks of pregnancy or later.
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