Healey signs Massachusetts bill changing abortion rules

What the law changes

Massachusetts Gov. Evangelical Times describes that change as allowing abortion “up to birth” and labels the law extreme; those words are the publication’s characterization of the measure.

The law also ends a requirement that abortions later in pregnancy be performed in a hospital. It permits one physician to approve an abortion, changing the previous approval process described for care after 24 weeks. These provisions address three separate parts of state abortion policy: the gestational limit, the required location for later procedures and the number of physicians involved in authorization.

What it means for patients and providers

Removing the 24-week limit means Massachusetts law no longer uses that point in pregnancy as the cutoff identified under the earlier policy. Ending the hospital requirement means a later abortion is not legally restricted to a hospital solely under that former rule. Allowing one physician to sign off means the authorization described by the act can be completed by a single doctor.

The act is a health care policy change rather than an election measure. Its implementation will turn on the law’s effective date and any state guidance governing providers, facilities and physician approval. The central policy change is Massachusetts’ elimination of the former 24-week protections and hospital requirement.