No person in Massachusetts should be turned away from care because they cannot afford it. That’s why the reproductive health care law passed in July included a requirement that insurance cover abortion and abortion-related care. The new law also ensures coverage is not subject to cost sharing. This is a major step to break down cost barriers to essential health care.

The law also included an important provision to expand access to care for Massachusetts college students, thousands of whom live in access deserts where the nearest abortion provider is an hours-long commute away. The new law requires Massachusetts public colleges and universities to provide access to—or referrals for—medication abortion where students spend their time: on campus.

As anti-abortion state legislatures force pregnancy within their borders and attempt to chill access beyond their borders, Massachusetts has an obligation to protect Bay State providers, patients, and helpers. That’s why we fought to include best-in-the-nation protections for Massachusetts reproductive health care and gender-affirming care providers from hostile out-of-state litigation. The law takes steps to shield providers’ professional licenses and malpractice insurance and prohibits extradition for the provision of legal in-state care, among several other protections. It also created a confidential address program for providers who too often face threats and violence for providing health care.

Emergency contraception is under attack from the anti-abortion movement. Anti-abortion extremist don’t just want to ban abortion – they want to restrict our ability to prevent unplanned pregnancy in the first place. That’s why we advocated for provisions in the reproductive health care law to expand access to emergency contraception. We wanted to ensure that every person could access the emergency contraception that’s right for them without delay, so we worked to include a statewide standing order for both prescription and over-the-counter emergency contraception, making insurance coverage—without cost-sharing—possible for all forms of emergency contraception at the point of sale.

We also worked to include a statutory fix to ensure over-the-counter emergency contraception can be sold in vending machines. Students at Boston University, Northeastern, Brandeis, and Harvard have already implemented these machines to help students access Plan B at cost and without delay.

At this moment of crisis, Massachusetts must be a beacon for reproductive freedom, not a state that forces people out of state for care at any point in their pregnancy. Yet even after passage of the ROE Act in 2020, that has been the case for some people and families who receive a devastating diagnosis later in pregnancy—like our friend Kate Dineen.

That’s why we fought in the reproductive health care law to clarify the 2020 ROE Act and ensure more comprehensive access to abortion care later in pregnancy within our state. We listened to the guidance of doctors who told us what they needed in statute in order to provide the best care possible. This language clarification is already having real-life, significant impacts for families faced with unimaginable diagnoses.

Our reproductive health law received national recognition, including a visit from Vice President Kamala Harris, who touted our work by saying, “You are leading by example. The work that is happening here in Massachusetts is a model of work that can and, we believe, should happen around the country." Reproductive Equity Now President Rebecca Hart Holder was even asked to introduce the Vice President and facilitate a roundtable discussion to talk about the impacts of our work. Our team also met with Senators Elizabeth Warren and Ed Markey to plan the congressional response to the fall of Roe, and joined Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley for a Town Hall to talk about our fight to protect abortion rights.