Massachusetts Governor Maura Healey Signs Supplemental Budget With Investments for Reproductive Health Care Access, Abortion Resources
FY2023 supplemental budget includes $1 million for a public education campaign on the dangers of anti-abortion centers, $250K for Abortion Legal Hotline
BOSTON (March 29, 2023) — Massachusetts Governor Maura Healey today signed a FY2023 supplemental budget that includes critical funding for reproductive health care access, including $1 million for a public education campaign on the dangers of anti-abortion centers, or “crisis pregnancy centers,” and $250,000 to support the Abortion Legal Hotline in Massachusetts.
The funding for a public education campaign will be used by the Massachusetts Department of Public Health to help educate providers and the public about anti-abortion centers’ deceptive practices and their lack of medical services, in addition to where people can access legitimate medical and family planning services throughout the state. Funding for the Abortion Legal Hotline will be used to support staff answering calls, managing security, coordinating among lawyers, and frequently updating resources; ongoing legal training to reflect the changing legal landscape; translation of the Hotline into multiple languages; and public education, including digital advertising, about the existence of the resource.
“In the first budget of her term, Governor Healey is making her deep commitment to reproductive freedom clear by approving these critical investments for abortion access,” said Reproductive Equity Now President Rebecca Hart Holder. “Governor Healey has worked for years to put an end to anti-abortion centers’ deceptive practices, and she knows that a multilingual public education campaign that meets people in their communities will be key to ensuring every person across Massachusetts knows where to access unbiased, legitimate reproductive health care. As the abortion landscape continues to change by the day, funding for the Abortion Legal Hotline will be more important than ever before to expand the resource’s reach and provide more patients and providers with the legal advice and assurance to access and obtain abortion care in our Commonwealth. We're grateful to Governor Healey and the Massachusetts Legislature for continuing to make our state a model for reproductive equity in a post-Roe America.”
More Information on Anti-Abortion Centers
Anti-abortion centers, or so-called “crisis pregnancy centers,” are facilities that purport to offer full options counseling, when, in reality, they exist to dissuade people from obtaining abortion care. These facilities outnumber legitimate abortion clinics in Massachusetts three to one, and pose a serious threat to people accessing unbiased health care throughout the state.
Anti-abortion centers are often deliberately located near reproductive health clinics, and purposefully use similar names in order to confuse patients visiting clinics. These facilities create websites that appear in online searches for legitimate abortion providers and advertise online and in print media in ways that might appeal to those who are considering abortion. Anti-abortion centers are typically managed and funded by national organizations that oppose abortion, and offer medical disinformation in order to manipulate and dissuade people from accessing abortion care.
Reproductive Equity Now’s Abortion Care Guide identifies legitimate abortion providers throughout New England, in addition to flagging anti-abortion centers throughout the region.
You can find a full list of anti-abortion centers throughout New England HERE.
More Information on the Abortion Legal Hotline
Reproductive Equity Now—in partnership with Attorney General Andrea Campbell, the ACLU of Massachusetts, the Women’s Bar Foundation, and five law firms across the state—launched the Abortion Legal Hotline this January, a confidential resource to connect Massachusetts patients and providers to free legal advice about their rights to offer and access abortion care. The Hotline was created as anti-abortion extremists in states across the country look to restrict access to abortion care beyond their borders.
Learn more about the Abortion Legal Hotline at reproequitynow.org/hotline.