Massachusetts Playbook, Politico | What’s next in the abortion-rights fight

By Lisa Kashinsky
Story Originally Appeared in Massachusetts Playbook, Politico

‘NOT DONE BY A LONG SHOT’ — As House lawmakers gathered to pass a sweeping abortion-protections bill Wednesday afternoon, abortion-rights advocates were meeting just down the hill with Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Ed Markey to plot their next steps in a post-Roe v. Wade world.

The House bill, approved in a bipartisan 136-17 vote, includes broad protections from out-of-state legal action for those seeking and providing reproductive and gender-affirming care. It shields providers from licensing board discipline and allows them to make their home addresses confidential, expands access to emergency contraception and requires insurance cover abortion and related care without copays or other cost-sharing. And it permits abortions after 24 weeks of pregnancy in cases of “severe” fetal anomalies, not just fatal fetal anomalies.

Abortion-rights advocates hailed the House’s “timely and robust response” to the Supreme Court ruling and said the bill’s provisions will “strengthen abortion access in Massachusetts” in post-vote statements from the leaders of Planned Parenthood League of Massachusetts, Reproductive Equity Now and the ACLU of Massachusetts.

But the bill only covers about “eight or 10” of the 21 recommendations the Beyond Roe Coalition laid out after POLITICO published the draft Supreme Court opinion signaling Roe’s demise, according to Rebecca Hart Holder, executive director of Reproductive Equity Now. “We’re not done by a long shot," she said.

Advocates also signaled the next frontier in the abortion-rights fight: a crackdown on so-called crisis pregnancy centers, operations that seek to dissuade people from getting abortions. The centers outnumber abortion clinics three to one in Massachusetts, which Hart Holder said is “the highest ratio in New England.”

Warren, who has already introduced federal legislation she says will prevent those centers from using deceptive advertising to steer people away from abortions, is now calling for similar action at the state level.

“The idea that centers have grown up to prey on people who are pregnant and vulnerable and seeking help is fundamentally wrong. We should stop it nationwide,” Warren said, and "we can move on it now right here in Massachusetts.”

But C.J. Doyle, executive director of the Catholic Action League, told Playbook that the “pro-life centers offer women compassionate alternatives to abortion.” He blasted Warren’s proposal as “special interest legislation on behalf of Planned Parenthood intended to shut down that organization's opponents” and said it would “likely fail a constitutional test on First Amendment grounds.”