The fight for life is heating up in Massachusetts where Democratic lawmakers are attempting to expand abortion rights, and they’re trying to do it by slipping their abortion agenda into the state’s 2021 budget.
The ACLU and other left-wing groups are lobbying for the proposed budget amendment #759 which mirrors the stalled ROE Act (which stands for Remove Obstacles and Expand Access to Abortion). The amendment would reportedly legalize late-term abortion up through the 9th month of pregnancy, under the guise of “fatal fetal abnormality”.
The budget amendment would also roll back current requirements that mandate minors must receive consent for an abortion from either a parent or judge.
The Daily Hampshire Gazette reports the state’s pro-choice Republican Gov. Charlie Baker has said he opposes late-term abortions and supports current state abortion laws.
However, House Speaker Robert DeLeo and Senate President Karen Spilka, who are behind the proposal, say they worry about a now conservative-leaning Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade.
“We are very concerned that Massachusetts’ women’s reproductive rights are under threat at the national level,” the pair told The Boston Globe. “We are therefore committed to debate measures in the House and Senate this session that would remove barriers to women’s reproductive health options and protect the concepts enshrined in Roe v. Wade.”
Massachusetts Republican Party Chairman Jim Lyons faulted DeLeo and Spilka for pushing the amendment.
“For them to decide that the height of an emergency health pandemic is a good time to do something like this is absolutely disturbing,” Lyons said in a press release.
The pro-life group Massachusetts Citizens for Life has created an online petition and is calling on people to contact legislators to urge them to vote against the “life-devaluing bill.”
“We will not stop fighting for life in the four years ahead,” the group’s website reads. “If anything, we will fight harder, with bigger hearts, a positive attitude, and bolstered by the truth that love and respect for the life of every person wins the day.”
The group reports nearly 20,000 abortions are already performed each year in Massachusetts.
This is just the latest attempt by Democrat-controlled state legislatures to push through controversial abortion measures, like New York state lawmakers who approved abortion up until the moment of birth last year.