(Oregon Right to Life) — A radical new abortion bill signed into law in Massachusetts has generated outcry nationwide for legalizing abortion up to the moment of birth. The bill puts Massachusetts on par with Oregon and countries like North Korea and China that also allow unlimited legal abortion.
On August 11, Massachusetts Governor Maura Healey signed H.5595, eliminating the state’s previous limitation on abortion after 24 weeks gestation – when an unborn baby can feel pain and survive outside the womb.
In a press release, Healey framed the measure as protecting women who “receive devastating news later in their pregnancy” and are “forced to travel” outside the state for abortion.
But despite the pro-abortion talking points echoed by the Massachusetts governor justifying unlimited legal abortion, the research points in a different direction.
A 2013 study on second trimester abortions, published by the pro-abortion Guttmacher Institute, noted that the “data suggest most women seeking later terminations are not doing so for reasons of fetal anomaly or life endangerment.” A 2009 paper published in the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology found that, “Although some second-trimester abortions occur because of maternal disease and fetal anomalies, the majority occur because of delay in obtaining first-trimester abortion in unintended pregnancies.”
According to the Guttmacher Institute, the most commonly cited reasons for elective abortions are “that having a child would interfere with a woman’s education, work or ability to care for dependents (74%); that she could not afford a baby now (73%); and that she did not want to be a single mother or was having relationship problems (48%).”
Moreover, pro-life advocates point out that fetal diagnoses – even fatal ones – do not require or justify preemptively ending the life of the unborn baby through the violence of abortion. Early delivery followed by compassionate medical care is a life-affirming alternative.
In a statement responding to the signing of H.5595 last week, Massachusetts Citizens for Life president Myrna Maloney urged people to become informed about the issue.
“We encourage those celebrating Governor Healey’s politically-motivated signature to learn not only about late-term and ‘dismemberment’ abortions, many of which Massachusetts taxpayers will fund, but also about perinatal hospice, palliative care options and other resources available to women faced with devastating, but never hopeless, fetal diagnoses,” Flynn said.
“Legalizing elective abortion up to birth on healthy moms and healthy, pain-capable infants is not about a doctor-patient relationship but rather abortionists normalizing infant death and pressuring vulnerable women to permit their unborn children to die in heinous acts of violence,” she said, adding that unlimited abortion up to the moment of birth is “among the most severe human rights assaults” and is “allowed in only a few places, among them China and North Korea.”
Massachusetts now joins the District of Columbia and nine other states, including Oregon, in having no gestational limits on elective abortion. Only eight other countries similarly allow unlimited abortion with no federal gestational limit. The vast majority of European countries limit abortion after 15 weeks gestation.
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In Oregon, abortion has been legal since 1969. Anyone can obtain an abortion at any point in pregnancy for any reason, with Oregon Health and Science University (OHSU) providing surgical abortions well into the third trimester. Oregon law does not require ultrasounds prior to abortions, and teen girls can obtain abortions without the knowledge or permission of their parents. Because there are no legally established standards of care for babies who survive abortions, which would require physicians to treat them the same as any other newborn, abortion survivors are vulnerable to fatal neglect. A bill to require a standard of care for infants born alive during abortions was brought to the House and Senate floor during the 2026 legislative session for a procedural vote to give the bill due process. The bill failed in committee when the Democratic supermajority rejected it in a party-line vote.
According to public records from the Oregon Health Authority, taxpayer dollars paid for more than 80% of all abortions performed in Oregon from 2021-2025.
Oregon Right to Life is committed to advocating for the right to life of Oregon’s unborn through fact-based pro-life education, connecting women and families with a robust network of life-affirming resources, and lobbying for legislation to protect unborn lives.
