Charlotte, NC — The legislature in the liberal state of Massachusetts overrode a veto by the state’s Republican governor to enact a law that lowers the age teenage girls are allowed to get abortions without the consent of their parents to 16.
Governor Charlie Baker (R) rightly vetoed the legislation, dubbed the ROE Act and meant to codify in law the Supreme Court’s decision in Roe v. Wade (1973), on Christmas Eve over the drop in the age requirement. The House and Senate overrode Governor Baker’s veto on Tuesday in a win for state Democrats, according to Fox News.
Susan B. Anthony List released a statement on Tuesday slamming the law’s passage. The pro-life group said in part,
Today Democrats in the Massachusetts legislature voted to override Governor Baker’s veto of the “Roe Act,” legislation that allows for late-term abortion on-demand and allows for secret abortions of minor girls beginning at age 16.
Polling released by Susan B. Anthony’s List in June of 2019 shows that:
- 62% of MA voters oppose allowing more late-term abortions in the state.
- 62% of MA voters support existing laws in their state that require parental consent before minor girls can obtain abortions.
- 74% of MA voters support existing laws in their state that require late-term abortions after 24 weeks to be performed in hospitals.
“This dangerous new law allows for late-term abortion on-demand across Massachusetts, and secret abortions for minor girls as young as 16,” the group’s president, Marjorie Dannenfelser, said. “Governor Baker is pro-choice, but this legislation was too much for him to stomach: his veto exemplifies just how extreme it is.
“The actions taken by Democrats to ram through this legislation are a reflection of just how extreme the party has become on abortion,” she continued. “Led by Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, Chuck Schumer, and Nancy Pelosi, the Democrats’ agenda for the entire nation is reflected in this bill: abortion on-demand, up until the moment of birth.”
Democrat State Sen. Harriette Chandler cheered the ROE Act as a win for “reproductive freedom.”
“Pregnant people who once faced near-insurmountable barriers accessing abortion care can now seize the right to control their own bodies,” she said in a tweet. “I am so proud of the policies included in the #ROEAct and of the @MA_Senate for our commitment to reproductive freedom.”
Pregnant people who once faced near-insurmountable barriers accessing abortion care can now seize the right to control their own bodies.
I am so proud of the policies included in the #ROEAct and of the @MA_Senate for our commitment to reproductive freedom. #mapoli pic.twitter.com/pRBKmbAQLB
— Harriette Chandler (@Sen_Chandler) December 29, 2020
The Roe Act further expands women’s legal authority to get an abortion after 24 weeks of pregnancy if doctors say the baby will not survive after birth. Moreover, the bill scrapped a rule requiring a 24-hour waiting period before an abortion procedure could take place.
In a letter to lawmakers explaining his veto, Baker said that while he supported many measures of the bill, he could not sign the legislation because of the lower age of consent to get an abortion.
“I cannot support the sections of this proposal that expand the availability of later term abortions and permit minors age 16 and 17 to get an abortion without the consent of a parent or guardian,” Baker wrote, according to WBUR.
Myrna Maloney Flynn serves as president of Massachusetts Citizens for Life also weighed in on the way Democrats behaved during debate saying, “Almost as disheartening as this new law is the fact that legislators rammed this damaging bill through during Covid, inserting it into the state budget, knowing our opposition could not fight it in person due to quarantine restrictions.”
The Roe Act was pushed by Democrats to pass the measure after Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg passed away in September. Further, the US Senate confirmed Amy Coney Barrett in October. Democrat in the Senate said that the conservative Supreme Court pick put legal access to abortions at risk. Democrats argued that the state needed to take steps to codify Roe v. Wade in case the Supreme Court overturned the decision.
According to WBUR, conservative lawmakers argued against the bill, and chairman of the Massachusetts Republican Party Jim Lyons compared the bill’s provisions to “infanticide.”
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