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| Massachusetts State House photo credit: Emmanuel Huybrechts / Flickr |
The amendment legalizes abortion up through the 24th week of development in cases of fetal anomalies, removes the requirement that 16 year-olds receive parental consent to have an abortion, and removes the requirement that abortionists save a born child's life if the child was born during a botched abortion.
Per that last change, the new legal language would only require that “life-supporting equipment” be present at abortion facilities. Abortionists would no longer be under any legal obligation to use it to save the life of a born child.
The margins of the budget's passage could overcome a veto by pro-abortion Governor Charlie Baker, but even he has expressed frustration with the fact that a policy like this was passed as a budget amendment.
“I do share some of the unhappiness that was raised by a number of members of the Republican Party — that putting policy in the budget was something that both leaders in the House and Senate said they would not do,” said Gov. Baker. “And it’s pretty hard to argue that this isn’t a major policy initiative that is now in the budget.”
He has also stated that he has “concerns about eliminating the parental-notification requirement” and about “changing the terms and conditions associated with late-term abortions in Massachusetts.”
