A Massachusetts bill that would radically expand abortion, allowing the intentional killing of preborn children all the way up to birth for any reason, has passed both the House and the Senate and next heads to the desk of Governor Maura Healey for her signature.

Key Takeaways:

• The Massachusetts Senate passed H.5595 on July 31, allowing abortion up to birth for any reason as long as a doctor (including the doctor who stands to profit from the abortion) approves.

• The bill next heads to the desk of Governor Maura Healey.

• Though abortion supporters called the legislation caring and medically necessary, it is never caring or necessary to kill a preborn child in the womb.

The Details:

HB H.5595, 'An Act Prioritizing Patient Access to Care,' passed the state's Senate on Friday, nine days after clearing the House. The bill radically expands upon the state's current law, which allows abortion after 24 weeks to protect the mother's physical or mental health or in cases of a fetal diagnosis, by allowing abortion at any point in the pregnancy for any reason, as long as a doctor approves.

If Healey signs the legislation, Massachusetts would become the 11th state to have no gestational limits on abortion.

The bill's sponsor, Rep. Lindsay N. Sabadosa, called abortion 'medically appropriate care.'

"The goal of passing this legislation is simple. Medical decisions should be made by a patient and their doctor. Massachusetts has one of the best health care systems in the country, and patients should be able to rely on their providers to deliver medically appropriate care without restrictions that can fail to account for the complexity of individual medical circumstances," she said. "By removing those barriers, we can ensure that no one has to leave Massachusetts to receive the care they need."

3rd Trimester Late-Term Abortion | Induction Abortion | What Is Abortion?

Reality Check:

Supporters of the bill paint a picture of women needing late abortions due to cases of prenatal diagnoses and fetal conditions. But in reality, data has shown that most women seeking late abortions are not doing so due to a prenatal diagnosis.

A 2013 study published by the pro-abortion Guttmacher Institute said, “[D]ata suggest that most women seeking later terminations are not doing so for reasons of fetal anomaly or life endangerment.”

This was also shown in a 2010 paper from Julia Steinberg, of the pro-abortion Bixby Center for Global Reproductive Health, in which she said, “Research suggests that the overwhelming majority of women having later abortions do so for reasons other than fetal anomaly."

What We're Hearing:

The bill has drawn harsh criticism from pro-life groups, both within and outside of the state.

“‘An Act Prioritizing Patient Access to Care’ endangers one patient and completely overlooks another in a gruesome and violent assault on human rights,” said Myrna Maloney Flynn, president of Massachusetts Citizens for Life. She continued:

“Not one legislator who voted for this has been brave enough to acknowledge the truth, the inconvenient fact that this bill allows heinous dismemberment abortions on perfectly healthy and viable babies. It is accepted science that an unborn baby’s nervous system is developed enough at 24 weeks of pregnancy so that the baby can feel pain. By passing this bill, Massachusetts lawmakers have decided that an abortionist can crush the skull of any infant, then tear that baby apart, limb by limb.”

2nd Trimester Abortion | Dilation and Evacuation (D&E) | What Is Abortion?

SBA Pro-Life America President Marjorie Dannenfelser said:

“Massachusetts already allows abortion in the first 24 weeks, but that isn’t enough for Democrats whose party holds the position of no limits on abortion whatsoever.

If Gov. Healey signs this bill into law, Massachusetts will join 10 states and Washington, D.C. with an all-trimester abortion policy where babies are killed after the point they can survive outside of the womb.

These extreme laws that only 10% of Americans support are enabled by the ‘states-only’ philosophy on abortion. The GOP must abandon the failed ‘leave it to the states’ position and move the country toward a national protection for unborn children across this nation.”

The state's Catholic bishops also issued a statement ahead of the Senate's July 31 passage, in which they called the bill "a radical measure which is gravely immoral" and exhorted the faithful to "pray for a renewal of reverence for all human life."

"We reaffirm the Church’s call to its own community and to civil society to provide the resources to welcome and cherish the gift of life, as well as to accompany women and families who have known the tragedy of abortion," the bishops wrote. "Let there be room in our hearts for the most vulnerable among us. May we recall and live the Lord's own word 'whatsoever you do to the least of these you do to me.'"

The Bottom Line:

Notably, a January 2026 poll showed that even less than a third of those who consider themselves "pro-choice" approve of abortion to birth.