Commonwealth Beacon | Warren, Markey say Mass. not safe in national fight over abortion

By Bhaamati Borkhetaria

Originally Published by Commonwealth Beacon

SENs. ELIZABETH WARREN and Ed Markey sounded the alarm about the negative impact that a Trump presidency could have on reproductive rights, even in Massachusetts where lawmakers have done a lot to codify those rights. 

“Efforts [to limit abortion rights] won’t be limited to the states where abortion is already restricted.  They will be used to block abortion everywhere, including right here in Massachusetts,” said Warren in her opening remarks on Wednesday at a panel hosted by advocacy group Reproductive Equity Now to discuss threats to abortion rights.

“The threats are real,” the senator said. “I’m grateful to all of you who came today and for everyone who is focused on this issue and understands the immediate threat posed by all of the different ways in which extremist legislators and extremist jurors are hoping to impose an agenda on the rest of America that it does not want. It is our responsibility to fight back.”

Warren pointed to a bill currently in Congress that would declare that life begins at conception. The bill, according to the senator, has the support of a majority of Republicans in the House of Representatives. It could effectively lead to a total ban on abortions, she said.

Markey raised similar concerns. “We will show radical Republicans that their playbook will not work,” he said. “We will fight to protect the right to essential healthcare by law, and we will make radical Republicans reveal what GOP really stands for: ‘Grossly oppressive politicians’ trying to intervene in the decisions of citizens in our country.”

Massachusetts ACLU attorney Carol Rose, a member of the panel, said the proposed federal law could also impact people’s access to IVF treatments, contraception, and gender-affirming care in the state. 

“It would impact thousands of laws in so many different ways than we can imagine, from interrogating and criminalizing people for their actions while they’re pregnant to creating health legal nightmares,” said Rose.

Warren also said that there is a possibility that if Donald Trump becomes president he could begin enforcing an 1873 anti-vice law that bans the mailing of equipment that could be used to administer an abortion. The Comstock Act has not been applied in the last 50 years but any president could theoretically enforce it, Warren said. 

The law would have a significant impact on Massachusetts, Rose said, because it would prevent providers from mailing out abortion medications to their out-of-state patients, make it difficult for pharmaceutical companies to mail abortion medication to the state, and prohibit the delivery of healthcare equipment required by abortion providers.

“It is a zombie law from 1873 that should frankly stay dead,” said Rebecca Hart Holder, the head of Reproductive Equity Now. “It is shameful that the Republicans are trying to resurrect it. It really goes to show you that they will use any means necessary to ban abortions if [Trump] does that.” 

Trump has recently suggested that he would support a 15-week ban on abortions and has taken credit for overturning Roe v. Wade by putting three conservative judges on the Supreme Court. 

After Roe v. Wade was overturned, Massachusetts passed legislation to protect reproductive and gender-affirming care by creating protections for people seeking abortions and the physicians who provide them. Despite being a state with some of the most comprehensive protections for reproductive rights, Massachusetts still isn’t safe from what happens at the national level, according to Rose. 

“It’s tremendously important as both a matter of healthcare, but also as a matter of law and as a matter of national politics, that we do sound the alarm, that we let people know that all of these things are under attack,” said Rose. “We have to think nationally, act nationally as well as thinking and acting locally.

Attorney General Andrea Campbell highlighted the work that her office is doing to combat abortion restrictions. She formed a reproductive justice unit in her office to focus on advancing reproductive justice on the state and national level. She collaborated with Reproductive Equity Now, the Women’s Bar Association, the ACLU of Massachusetts, and five law firms to launch a free legal advice hotline for patients seeking reproductive care.

Campbell said she is also working with attorney generals in other states to codify abortion protections in other states.