Abortion expansion added to state budget

          
         The Massachusetts Senate voted 33-7 to expand abortion access by adding an amendment to the fiscal 2021 budget, Statehouse News reported Wednesday. The House approved a similar amendment the previous week.
         The state’s bishops had expressed their opposition to both state representatives and senators and urged Catholics to do the same.
         “It is a sad irony that at a time when we are so focused on the safety and wellbeing of the people of our great Commonwealth that both the state House and Senate chose to expand abortion,” Bishop McManus said in reaction.
         The Catholic Church teaches that life itself starts at conception and ends with natural death.  
         All four Republican senators, Bruce Tarr, Ryan Fattman, Patrick O’Connor and Dean Tran, voted against the amendment, as did Democrats Michael Rush, Walter Timilty and John Velis.
         Worcester’s Sen. Harriette Chandler sponsored the amendment. “The time has come for urgent action,” the Senate president emerita told Statehouse News Service. “I believe in an affirmative right to choose, but this right now hangs in the balance. Those of us who remember the days before legal abortion and contraception must unite with those of us who never knew those dark times to protect this right at all costs.”
         The amendment makes clear in state law that abortions are legal in Massachusetts, allows abortions after 24 weeks of pregnancy in cases with a diagnosed fatal fetal anomaly, and lowers the age above which a woman does not need parental or court approval for the procedure from 18 to 16, Statehouse news reported.
         It is up to Gov. Charlie Baker whether or not to sign the major policy change. Baker has not said if he will veto the amendment, but last week criticized the inclusion of the policy rider in the budget, the news service reported.
         The bishops said they were concerned that the amendment was “an effort to expand abortion in Massachusetts by taking advantage of the process of approving a budget for the Commonwealth.”  
“Abortion at any time, from the moment of conception to birth, is in direct conflict with Catholic teaching and must be opposed,” the bishops’ statement said. 
         Current law requires a young woman under the age of 18 years old to gain the consent of a parent, guardian or the court to have an abortion. The amendment would decrease the age of consent to 16 years old. “In its simplest terms, a 16- or 17-year-old girl would be deprived of the guidance and support of an adult at the time of making this life changing decision,” the bishops said.