Massachusetts Senate overruled Governor Charlie Baker's veto of ROE Act which allows minors to have an abortion even without parental consent, a report said.
According to CBS Boston, the senate has expanded access for girls aged 16 and 17 to abortion by vetoing the bill on it a day after the Massachusetts House of Representatives did. The bill also grants abortion after 24 weeks into pregnancy.
NPR explained that the ROE Act only allows abortion for 24 weeks of pregnancy when a deadly fetal anomaly is in place or in instances prescribed by a physician as a necessary procedure to "preserve the patient's physical or mental health".
Baker, as per NPR, actually vetoed the bill last December only on the account of its access for minors. He actually is in full support of granting abortions to those 24 weeks in pregnancy "if the fetus would not survive after birth" and of supporting access to reproductive health care.
"I cannot support the sections of this proposal that expand the availability of later term abortions and permit minors age 16 and 17 to get an abortion without the consent of a parent or guardian," Baker wrote.
WBUR added that Baker, through a letter addressed to legislators, expressed support in eliminating the waiting period of 24 hours before an abortion along with the changes to the judicial bypass process for abortions to be made accessible to minors without their parents' consent.
"The House voted 107-50 on Tuesday to re-enact the abortion bill (H 5179), giving leadership in that branch a slim cushion of two votes to reach the two-thirds majority needed to override Baker. In the Senate, the margin was a more comfortable 32-8 to reject Baker's amendment," WBUR said.
NPR revealed that the ROE Act Coalition organized efforts across the state to pass the bill into law. The Coalition released a statement in celebration of the bill's passing into law.
"With the ROE Act provisions now law, most young adults seeking abortion will be able to access the care and support they need without navigating the court system," the statement read, "and pregnant people facing a fatal fetal diagnosis later in pregnancy will be able to access abortion care here in Massachusetts, with a provider they know and trust, rather than traveling across the country for care."
As per WBUR, Planned Parenthood Advocacy Fund of Massachusetts is one of the members of the coalition that pushed for the bill's approval into law. Baker's veto of the law last December, according to the coalition, was "'callous and dangerous' to the health and well-being of women in Massachusetts."
"With this veto, the Governor has made plain that he has no problem imposing medically unnecessary barriers that delay and deny care, and forcing families to fly across the country to get compassionate care," the coalition stated. "Our abortion laws are broken, and with two recent actions against equitable abortion access, Governor Baker is upholding our broken system."
Movements in politics and government leadership such as the death of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and the confirmation of Justice Amy Coney Barrett by President Donald Trump as reasons behind abortion in the state warming up since this threatened pro-abortion groups in the area.
