Massachusetts to allow abortions through all 9 months of pregnancy based on 'judgment of the physician'

By Ryan Foley, Christian Post Reporter Tuesday, August 11, 2026

Massachusetts has passed a bill lifting the state's 24-week gestational limit on abortion, with pro-life advocates warning that the state now effectively allows abortion throughout all nine months of pregnancy.

Democratic Gov. Maura Healey signed House Bill 5595 into law Monday. The bill passed the Massachusetts House in a 119-35 vote last month. No Republicans supported it, and 10 Democrats joined Republicans in voting no.

The measure removes language from state law that required doctors performing late-term abortions to determine the procedure was necessary to protect the mother’s life or health, because the unborn child had a fetal anomaly, or because the child could not survive outside the womb without major medical help. Under the new law, abortions can be performed after 24 weeks’ gestation for any reason, based on “the professional judgment of the physician.”

Healey posted a video of the bill signing on Monday. Text with the video read: “As long as I’m Governor, abortion will remain safe, legal and accessible in Massachusetts. You have my word.”

“In Massachusetts, women and their families shouldn’t have to cross state lines for abortion care doctors can provide in our state. Today, I signed a law so they won’t have to. Real freedom means health care decisions belong to women and their doctors. Not their government,” Healey wrote in a subsequent X post.

National Right to Life President Carol Tobias accused the state of having "erased the final protections for unborn children who can feel pain and who could survive outside the womb."

“At the very stage when premature babies are receiving lifesaving care in neonatal intensive care units, Massachusetts will permit abortionists to end the lives of children of the same age — and even older," Tobias said in statement. “That is not compassion, and it is not health care. This law exposes the dishonesty behind the claim that no one supports abortion up until birth.”

“When lawmakers remove every objective limitation and authorize an abortion provider to decide whether an abortion may be performed at any point during pregnancy, abortion until birth is precisely what the law allows,” Tobias added.

Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of the pro-life grassroots organization Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, condemned the new law in a statement Monday.

“It should shock the conscience that tens of thousands of unborn Americans are barbarically dismembered limb by limb and torn apart every single year,” she said. “Sadly, that number will only increase with Gov. Healey’s approval of the Abortion Up Until Birth Bill.”

“The GOP must abandon the ‘leave it to the states’ position — a stance that permits egregious later-term abortion laws like this one — and advance national protections for unborn children,” she added. “Without a minimum national standard, the United States remains 1 of only 8 countries worldwide that allows abortion at any point in pregnancy. We must do all we can to turn the page on America’s ugly chapter on late-term abortion.”

The other seven countries that allow abortion throughout pregnancy, according to a 2024 report from the Charlotte Lozier Institute, are Australia, Canada, China, Guinea-Bissau, Mexico, South Korea and Vietnam.

The new law follows the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2022 decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which found the U.S. Constitution does not guarantee a right to abortion and let states set their own abortion laws.

Data from Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America shows Massachusetts already had few abortion restrictions before the new law passed. It now joins 10 other states and the District of Columbia in allowing abortion at any point in pregnancy: Alaska, Colorado, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, Oregon, Vermont and Washington.