Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey spent this week signing away one of the last hard limits on abortion in a state that already ranked among the most permissive in the country, and now even some of her own party's lawmakers think she went too far.
The Prioritizing Patient Access to Care Act strips away the state's statutory ban on abortions after 24 weeks of pregnancy. Physicians in the state can now perform abortions at any point in the pregnancy, based on their own professional judgment, with no gestational cutoff written into law. The measure also expands legal protections for providers, shielding them from consequences that once accompanied performing procedures deep into the third trimester. Critics have a simple way of describing what changed: abortion in Massachusetts is now legal up until the moment of birth.
The bill cleared the Massachusetts House 119-33 on July 22, and the vote broke down almost exactly the way you would expect in a legislature that Democrats control by an overwhelming margin. Almost exactly, but not quite. Nine House Democrats voted with Republicans against the bill, and several of them made clear that their objections went beyond politics.
Rep. Jeffrey Turco, a Winthrop Democrat, did not hold back.
"This new law represents an extremist and dangerous position," Turco told Fox News Digital.
He added that the law "allows abortion anytime, unrestricted, and in many cases, publicly funded until the moment of birth." Turco also complained about
