Massachusetts (GNP): Massachusetts Governor Maura Healey has signed legislation eliminating the state’s gestational time limit on abortion, making Massachusetts the tenth state in the country to remove such restrictions entirely.
The new law, known as the Prioritizing Patient Access to Care Act, replaces the state’s previous 24-week framework with a standard that leaves the decision to perform a later-term abortion to the professional judgment of a licensed physician.
Under the law that had been in place until now, abortions after 24 weeks were permitted only in specific circumstances, including threats to the patient’s life or physical and mental health, or in cases involving severe fetal abnormalities.
The newly signed measure removes those defined categories altogether, giving doctors broader discretion to determine when a later-term abortion is medically appropriate.
The legislation also strengthens the state’s existing Shield Law, which is designed to protect patients and healthcare providers in Massachusetts from investigations or legal action tied to abortion care that is legal within the state.
Healey signed the bill at a State House ceremony surrounded by lawmakers, physicians and advocates, framing the move as a safeguard for reproductive rights amid ongoing national political battles over abortion access.
She said the change was intended to ensure that patients facing serious pregnancy complications would no longer need to travel out of state to receive care, and pledged that abortion would remain safe, legal and accessible in Massachusetts regardless of federal-level action. The governor’s office said the law takes effect in ninety days.
The legislation has drawn strong criticism from the citizens in the state and on social media, who argue that removing defined gestational limits leaves no legal protection for viable fetuses later in pregnancy.
Massachusetts Citizens for Life and the state’s Catholic bishops have described the measure as a radical rollback of existing safeguards, arguing that relying solely on a physician’s professional judgment creates room for elective abortions later in pregnancy without the specific medical justifications the previous law required. National anti-abortion advocacy groups have also condemned the bill in similarly forceful terms since it was signed.
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Supporters of the law, including several major Massachusetts hospital networks that backed the bill before it passed, have said later-term abortions make up a very small share of procedures overall and are almost always linked to severe medical complications or fatal fetal diagnoses.
According to state Department of Public Health data, 99 abortions were performed at 24 weeks of pregnancy or later in 2024, compared with 84 the year before, a rise officials have attributed partly to out-of-state patients seeking care in Massachusetts.
The bill passed the state House by a wide margin in July, with Republican lawmakers who voted on it opposing the measure. Its signing comes as Healey campaigns for re-election ahead of the November 2026 gubernatorial vote, and as the Trump administration has separately opened investigations into a number of states over how their health insurance plans cover reproductive care. Massachusetts now joins Alaska, Colorado, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, Oregon, Vermont and Washington, D.C. in having no statutory gestational limit on abortion.
Managing Editor at Global News Pakistan (GNP), with a Bachelor's degree in International Relations from Riphah International University, graduated with a Gold Medal. Reach out at sabahtareengnp@gmail.com
