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The reaction to the Supreme Court’s abortion decision was swift, with many Bay State lawmakers condemning the ruling and Gov. Charlie Baker immediately issuing an executive order to keep the practice legal in the commonwealth.
Friday’s ruling, led by the conservative majority of the Supreme Court, overturned the landmark Roe v. Wade decision, in place for nearly 50 years, and put abortion access squarely in the hands of individual states.
The decision is expected to lead to abortion bans in nearly half the states, but likely won’t affect liberal states like Massachusetts, where in 2020, the Legislature codified abortion rights in state law through the ROE Act.
On Friday, Baker issued an executive order that would protect providers who perform abortion services for out-of-state women, and would guard women from out-of-state who seek reproductive services that are lawful in Massachusetts.
“I am deeply disappointed in today’s decision by the Supreme Court, which will have major consequences for women across the country who live in states with limited access to reproductive health care services,” Baker said.
Abortion is legal in Massachusetts — for those 16 and older without parental consent — through 24 weeks of pregnancy, and after that time in cases of fatal fetal anomaly, or if the physician determines the procedure “is necessary to protect the patient’s life or physical or mental health,” the ROE Act states.
Ruling in favor of overturning Roe v. Wade, and the 1992 Planned Parenthood v. Casey case that reaffirmed the right to abortion, were conservative Justices Samuel Alito, Clarence Thomas, Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett, the latter three of whom were appointed by former President Donald Trump.
Liberal Justices Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan were in dissent.
“We therefore hold that the Constitution does not confer a right to abortion,” Alito wrote in the majority opinion. “Roe and Casey must be overturned, and the authority to regulate abortion must be returned to the people and their elected representatives.”
Democratic Massachusetts lawmakers, Boston Mayor Michelle Wu, and abortion rights activists quickly condemned the ruling, with some speaking at a Friday press conference outside the State House.
“Today is an extremely dark day for America, as we face what can only be called a nightmare scenario for women and those who can get pregnant across this nation,” Senate President Karen Spilka, D-Ashland, said. “It is important to stress that abortion remains and will remain legal in Massachusetts.”
Spilka said the Senate included language in the fiscal year 2023 budget to protect access to reproductive health care, and stressed the urgency of codifying those provisions.
Wu said the decision would ruin and end lives, noting that it “does not end abortions, but it makes them far more dangerous.”
Massachusetts Republican Party Chairman Jim Lyons, and a number of religious and conservative family groups praised the Court’s decision.
“It took 50 years, but the U.S. Supreme Court finally got it right and determined there is no constitutional right in snuffing out the lives of the unborn,” Lyons said. “Inflicting pain and death on another living, developing individual is not a right protected by the Constitution, no matter how warped the Democrats’ logic may be.”
Lou Murray, from the Boston Chapter Helpers of God’s Precious Infants and chairman of Boston Catholic Radio, said: “It is wonderful to see a courageous Supreme Court correct mistakes that had no basis in the text of the Constitution.”
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