BRAINTREE, Mass. (OSV News) – The "elimination of any legal restraint on late-term abortion" is "a radical measure which is gravely immoral," the Catholic bishops of Massachusetts said.
The bishops made the comments in a July 29 statement issued in response to the July 22 passage by the Massachusetts House of Representatives of a measure removing prior legal restrictions on abortion after 24 weeks of pregnancy. Senate passage followed on July 31, the last day of that chamber's formal session.
On Aug. 10, Gov. Maura Healey signed the bill – "An Act Prioritizing Patient Access to Care" – into law.
At the signing ceremony, Healey, a Catholic and a longtime advocate of a legal right to abortion, promised that "no matter" what President Donald Trump, U.S. Senate Republicans or the Supreme Court do with regard to abortion, "we're going to continue to make sure that women and families have access to the health care that they need right here in Massachusetts."
The new law allows physicians to perform abortions after 24 weeks of pregnancy if in their "professional judgment" it is medically necessary. It also eliminates the requirement that late-term abortions be performed in a hospital setting, allowing licensed physicians to provide abortions in other eligible health care and treatment centers.
In Massachusetts, which has some of the most permissive abortion laws in the nation, abortions after 24 weeks had previously been allowed only to preserve the patient's life or their physical or mental health, or in cases of lethal or severe fetal abnormalities.
"As Catholic bishops we have a moral responsibility to present and uphold Catholic teaching and the sacred God-given dignity of every human life from conception to the natural death," the bishops' statement read. They had expressed hope the Senate "would not follow the House on this measure."
The four Massachusetts bishops – Archbishop Richard G. Henning of Boston, Bishop Robert J. McManus of Worcester, Bishop Edgar M. da Cunha of Fall River and Bishop William D. Byrne of Springfield – released their joint statement through the Massachusetts Catholic Conference, the public policy arm of the Catholic Church in Massachusetts.
"Life is beautiful!" the bishops declared and invited "the Catholic community to pray for a renewal of reverence for all human life."
"We reaffirm the Church's call to its own community and to civil society to provide the resources to welcome and cherish the gift of life, as well as to accompany women and families who have known the tragedy of abortion," they said.
"Let there be room in our hearts for the most vulnerable among us," the statement read. "May we recall and live the Lord's own word 'whatsoever you do to the least of these you do to me.'"
They also joined Pope Leo XIV in his July prayer intention "as he implored the Lord Jesus to help us love life as He does, 'with tenderness, fidelity, and self-giving.'"
"We uphold his call," they said. "May we proclaim, in words and action, that every human life is worth the total gift of ourselves."
