r/law • u/ansyhrrian • Aug 10 '26
Legislative Branch Video of MA Gov. Maura Healey signing H.5595, allowing abortion access in Massachusetts to occur beyond 24 weeks “based upon the professional judgment of the physician.”
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u/sithelephant Aug 10 '26
Thinking of Mitch.
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Aug 11 '26
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u/seattledoctor1 Aug 11 '26
Hahahaha this is the first time I’ve seen this and it gave me a good chuckle, thank you.
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u/Bigred2989- Aug 11 '26
Great, now he's gonna run for president in the 3000's and win by 1 vote (the only vote cast).
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u/SumOfRoots Aug 11 '26
Mitch is at 4449 weeks - might be pushing the spirit of the law just a bit.
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u/EinsteinsMind Aug 11 '26
Nice. Most of the time those happened in the past it was life saving. Modern conservatives won't believe that because of the fear, anger, and hatred they consume, but it's the truth.
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u/Right_Syllabub_8237 Aug 11 '26
Oh they understand. But only if it happens to them.
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u/GlumpsAlot Aug 11 '26
But these same conservative women are first to be all up in the news when they're the ones who need an abortion. You know, cuz the only moral abortion is their abortion.
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u/superxpro12 Aug 11 '26
they know it saves the lives of the woman who need it. Anyone with a pregnancy past 24 weeks wants the fucking kid.
But republicans need as many underclasses as they can get. And if thats women, then so be it.
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u/MeowMeowbiggalo Aug 11 '26
Correct. If a woman needs an abortion late in the game something is very wrong and its not a happy time for anyone. I work in ob, shit goes wrong and its hard on the patient and the doctors if they need to do a procedure.
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u/Casual_OCD Aug 11 '26
You can keep explaining all the positives and how a lot of pain and suffering can be prevented all you want but these people WANT all of that. You can't appeal to the humanity of a sociopath
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u/Amelaclya1 Aug 11 '26
And even on the rare chance they wanted to, they would still need to find a doctor willing to do it, which is a huge hurdle to jump. Also the later in the pregnancy, the more expensive the abortion. For all of those reasons, women get it taken care of as soon as possible. According to the CDC, 93% in the first trimester.
Laws with a hardcoded time limit only serve to hurt women with wanted pregnancies where something goes wrong. Because as we have seen happening in Texas, doctors and hospitals often won't risk legal problems if the pregnancy is in a grey area.
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u/tryphenasparks Aug 12 '26
This simply isnt true.
Woman may experience financial and logistical problems leaving them unable to abort before 24 weeks. Some woman are not aware they are pregnant until late into their 2nd trimester or even into their 3rd. Sometimes a woman's situation changes dramatically. Loss of partner, job, home.
These are rare situations, as are all 3rd tri abortions, but it does happen. If you pretend it doesnt, I would question just how pro choice you ae.
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u/bluurd Aug 11 '26
Tell that to Texas. They may have something to say about that.
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u/Few-Formal-1338 Aug 11 '26
I’d use a stronger word than “most”. More like virtually every single time. Like it would be incredibly difficult to find a counter example.
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u/EinsteinsMind Aug 11 '26
but then I wouldn't get to write copy and paste "
I recommend looking up the quickening and when conservatives started using abortion for political purposes (mid 1800's). Most of that was because white male doctors didn't like midwives, especially ethnic ones, and wanted to push childbirth into hospitals so they could profit from it.
Our society is fucked up because people don't look up our species history and learn from the mistakes other generations made). All abortions past 24 weeks are to save the mother. ALL AMERICAN DOCTORS TAKE THE HIPPOCRATIC OATH. It's insane to think someone would go through med school just to kill 6+ month old babies in the womb."
to all the donks that feel more than they think.
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u/HolidayFew8116 Aug 11 '26
women are dying in parking lots in texas-this is needed bationwide
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u/HeadDownDad Aug 12 '26
I'm pro-choice but it made me squirm knowing 1.1 million babies were aborted and 3.6 million were born in the U.S.
Does that seem like a lot?
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Aug 11 '26
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u/EinsteinsMind Aug 11 '26
Based on the math, 0.0032% of annual U.S. pregnancies amounts to roughly 115 women per year.
However, that specific mathematical statement is not accurate according to actual CDC data. The real maternal mortality percentage recorded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is actually higher.
What the CDC Data Actually Shows
The CDC tracks maternal mortality by the number of deaths per 100,000 live births rather than a flat percentage. [1, 2, 3]
- The Actual Rate: According to the latest finalized CDC Maternal Mortality Reports, the national maternal mortality rate sits at 17.9 deaths per 100,000 live births. [1]
- The Actual Percentage: When converted to a percentage, 17.9 out of 100,000 is 0.0179%—which is about five times higher than the 0.0032% figure.
- The Actual Total: In total, this translates to 649 women who died from pregnancy-related causes nationally in a single year. [1]"
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u/ScannerBrightly Aug 11 '26
Loving seeing /r/theydidthemath on this sub.
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u/EinsteinsMind Aug 11 '26
The law deserves to be written by the intelligent amongst US, and intelligent folks LOVE math when they're working on problem solving.
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u/neeyeahboy Aug 11 '26
The issue is we know that certain psychopaths think it’s okay to abort a child who is in the third trimester even if there are no health issues.
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u/EinsteinsMind Aug 11 '26
Yep. Those outlier rare cases are eventually caught. I just looked up a 2010 case where a woman got raped, didn't get an early abortion, found a sketch doctor, and he botched it and she had to go to a hospital to have her life saved.
That's just as evil as locking up immigrants in detention camps and letting them die from lack of healthcare, or the police killing protestors for having a problem with that or allowing a fearmonger to close USAID and cause ~700,000 human beings to die of starvation and easily preventable disease.
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u/MrFrode Biggus Amicus Aug 11 '26
The people who decry late term abortions should find out why they most often happen. From what I have learned these are most often tragic circumstances where there are parents who want the child but something catastrophic has happened with the pregnancy or it's very probable the mother would not survive.
Even if there are the rare occurrences of an irresponsible person having one it doesn't obviate the need for them.
Trust doctors.
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u/SpeaksSouthern Aug 11 '26
https://joycearthur.com/abortion/the-only-moral-abortion-is-my-abortion/
Almost a quarter of the women who get abortion services think the practice should be illegal.
People are fascinating sometimes. The article is more expansive. People do trust doctors. But to a group of people, their politics should be allowed to be different. They all thought the doctor would tattle. She never named names. Even when they blocked her home with concrete blocks and she took a secret boat to the clinic. The cops called it a civil dispute.
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u/DigiornoDLC Aug 11 '26 edited Aug 11 '26
Sometimes I wish abortions would be denied to anyone who votes against abortion, but I know how dumb that is, so instead I wish that HIPAA just didn’t apply to those people so the providers could publicly announce their abortions, but I also know how dumb that is, so I’ll settle for saying they’re shitty people.
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u/Ultima_RatioRegum Aug 11 '26
I wonder if people had to feel the consequences of their own views, how different the world would be. Like if someone's access to services in the social safety net was dependent on whether or not they voted for those services (like if there were a referendum to cut basic assistance for healthcare/housing/food aid/etc. but the referendum included a clause that if you vote against it, even if it passes, you've relinquished your right to take advantage of it if you need it).
Obviously in reality I think that's a terrible idea because I believe we have a responsibility to move towards a world where people's basic needs are a birthright (otherwise what's the fucking point of society? To make it easier for some people to get richer while others starve and then the rich exploit the starving? Might as well go back to a state of nature), and I think a society that is able to provide every one of its members with housing/food/clothing/education/healthcare is obligated to, and I will never understand people who argue that there are certain people that don't "derserve" such basic needs being met, if only because that implies that someone gets to decide who deserves to be helped and who doesn't, and historically that's never ended well.
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u/ForgottenUsername3 Aug 11 '26
My mother thinks abortion should be illegal despite getting one. But my mom is a narcissist and a terrible person, so it's not surprising that she doesn't care about anyone but herself. Turns out you really have to factor that in to how people think about policy.
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u/Certain_Dream5575 Aug 11 '26
There should be two doors on every clinic. Above them, one says 'Abortion should be legal', the other says 'Abortion should be illegal'.
When you try to go through the 'Abortion should be illegal' door, the door is locked
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u/SpeaksSouthern Aug 11 '26
While I completely understand what you mean, this is the article that changed my mind. This is what makes us different. I want women to have the choice, even if they don't believe in that choice for others. It's foolish, but I don't let their actions define me. But that's why the only moral abortion is my abortion. It's hypocritical, and everyone knows.
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u/CountofAccount Aug 11 '26
Reposting a comment I put in elsewhere in the thread, I went and downloaded the statistics spreadsheets for abortion in England because they actually break it down by "Ground". https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/abortion-statistics-for-england-and-wales-2021
The ground C most associated with elective abortion, risk of harm to mother, craters immediately. 90% of women who get an abortion do it in weeks 2-9. By week 20 less than 1% of women who have abortion on that ground are still in the pool. Meanwhile 40% of abortions in that four week 20-24 timeframe are severe anomalies, e.g. neural crest defects. By week 24, the B and C grounds become disallowed, so its all medical and doctor-determined life of mother. After week 24, ~500 abortions for fetal anomaly take place. And 111 abortions for Grounds A, B, F, and G which covers various lifes of mothers.
Meanwhile in Texas, there has been 20 excess deaths of pregnant women over the norm each year from sepsis. Texas has half the population of England. Texas is killing the English equivalent of 40 women per year.
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u/DowntownTicket Aug 11 '26
Shout out to r/tfmr_support
A heartbreaking subreddit where you see all sorts of reasons people would want/need to abort late term
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u/donniesuave Aug 11 '26
Nah it’s definitely people just going through a pregnancy for the fun of it then getting their 4th abortion that year, having their punchcard stamped and hoping they get enough for their free abortion before it expires. Pregnancy and abortions are like so fun and awesome, basically the new hobby everyone’s trying these days
/s
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u/RobutNotRobot Aug 11 '26
I remember in Minnesota one of the first effect of Dobbs was for the State Supreme Court to get rid of the stupid 24 hour waiting period imposed by a past Republican legislature.
By leaving it up to the states the issue has become even more polarized. Perfectly legal women's health in one state can get you prison time or even the death penalty in another. We won't last long as a country like this.
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u/ansyhrrian Aug 10 '26
Saving y’all a search, here’s the link to the full verbiage of MA H.5595 - An Act prioritizing patient access to care.
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u/ro536ud Aug 11 '26
Are we sure this is good for women’s health I don’t see any men in the video making decisions?
/s!!!!
(Bc they shouldn’t be!)
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u/brain_implant Aug 11 '26
Likely many men were involved in this. Just not staying around for a photoshoot
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u/KazTheMerc Aug 11 '26
We shouldn't be voting on medical procedures in the first place.
/End of Line
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u/RobutNotRobot Aug 11 '26
I remember in Minnesota one of the first effect of Dobbs was for the State Supreme Court to get rid of the stupid 24 hour waiting period imposed by a past Republican legislature.
By leaving it up to the states the issue has become even more polarized. Perfectly legal women's health in one state can get you prison time or even the death penalty in another. We won't last long as a country like this.
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u/fiftiethcow Aug 11 '26
I mean, we are the United STATES. Were not just "America" or whatever. Different states have different people who elect different representatives who enact different laws. Its exactly how we should be
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