Repro Equity Now Celebrates Major Repro Wins of the 2023-24 MA Legislative Session

BOSTON (August 19, 2024) – With the 2023-24 Massachusetts legislative session now closed, Reproductive Equity Now President Rebecca Hart Holder today celebrated the legislature’s major progress to advance reproductive equity in the Bay State. The legislature passed several bills this session that take steps to improve maternal health outcomes, expand access to reproductive health care, and invest in the state’s child care infrastructure, all pieces of Reproductive Equity Now’s 2023-24 legislative priorities.

Improving Maternal Health Outcomes
The Massachusetts Legislature took action to pass a major birthing justice package during informal session to improve maternal health outcomes across the state. As new DPH data reported that maternal morbidity has dramatically worsened over the last decade, the Legislature responded by passing legislation to create a pathway to licensure for Certified Professional Midwives, expand access to out-of-hospital birth centers, and improve access to doulas—all interventions proven to reduce racial inequities in birthing outcomes. We’re proud to be a part of the Bay State Birth Coalition that advocated for passage of this historic bill, and are grateful to the Legislature for continuing to work through the informal session to address the maternal health crisis in our state.

Investing in High-Quality, Affordable Child Care
In the FY2025 budget, the state made bold investments in Massachusetts’ child care infrastructure, including by making the state’s C3 operational grant program for providers permanent, expanding eligibility for child care subsidies, and significantly improving the pay and benefits for early educators. These investments will ensure that more Massachusetts families are able to access affordable, high-quality child care, help early educators create sustainable careers, and improve gender and racial equity in our state, all in pursuit of the Common Start vision. We are grateful to the Common Start Coalition for its bold advocacy, and to the Massachusetts legislature for their understanding that true reproductive equity is not attainable until child care is affordable and accessible for all. 

Ensuring Parentage for All Parents
This session, the Legislature took action to pass the Massachusetts Parentage Act, ensuring all children across our state have equal access to the security of a legal parent-child relationship. Reproductive equity is not a reality in Massachusetts until every individual — and every LGBTQ family — is able to make decisions about whether and when to parent, and to parent with dignity. This law will protect family formation in a post-Dobbs world, ensure that LGBTQ+ parents have the protections they need to start or build their families, and support children’s development and well-being over a lifetime. 

Funding Abortion Access in the State
The Massachusetts Legislature continued its $2 million annual investment in abortion access and infrastructure in the FY2025 budget. This funding will help ensure that Massachusetts abortion providers can continue to meet the influx of patients traveling to the state for care post-Dobbs, and support the state’s abortion funds as they continue to fund patient care. Budgets are a reflection of values, and Massachusetts is continuing to make it clear that the state will protect and support abortion access in a post-Roe world.

Expanding Access to Contraceptive Care
The FY2025 budget includes a standing order for over-the-counter contraceptives and prenatal vitamins, which enables MassHealth members to access over-the-counter birth control and prenatal vitamins for free without a prescription. With contraception access under threat nationwide, Massachusetts is working to stand up to attacks and expand access to birth control.

“We are proud that the Massachusetts Legislature made major progress to advance reproductive equity across the Commonwealth this legislative session. With passage of several bills to improve maternal health, expand access to reproductive health care, and support Bay State families, Massachusetts is once again demonstrating that it will continue to be a leader for reproductive freedom in a post-Roe world,” said Rebecca Hart Holder, President of Reproductive Equity Now. “We are grateful to Senate President Karen Spilka, Speaker Ron Mariano, and the entire House and Senate for their bold vision and action this session, and in the many years prior. We look forward to continuing our work together to ensure reproductive freedom rings across our commonwealth.”

While the legislature made important progress to pass Reproductive Equity Now’s equity agenda, next year, the organization will continue to advocate to protect abortion patients’ and providers’ digital privacy and ensure the full spectrum of pregnancy care is affordable for Bay Staters.

Protecting Abortion Patients’ and Providers’ Digital Privacy
The Massachusetts House made important progress this session to address the evolving threat to abortion patients and providers’ digital privacy. In the two years post-Dobbs, hostile actors have targeted the location data of patients and providers in all 50 states, and now, we are increasingly concerned that this data will be weaponized against those seeking and providing care in Massachusetts. Abortion patients are not fully protected until their digital footprint is protected, too. We look forward to the progress we can make next session to protect the deeply sensitive and personal information that location data can reveal about all parts of our lives, whether at an abortion clinic, at home, at work, at worship, or beyond, by passing the Location Shield Act.

Eliminating Financial Barriers to the Full Spectrum of Pregnancy Care
For the first time, this session, An Act Ensuring Access to Full Spectrum Pregnancy Care received a favorable report from both the Joint Committee on Financial Services and the Joint Committee on Health Care Financing, which referred it to Senate Ways & Means. We are extremely proud of the progress we made to pass this bill, and it would not be possible without the legislation’s lead sponsors, Senator Cindy Friedman and Representatives Lindsay Sabadosa and Ruth Balser. We look forward to continuing our advocacy next session for this legislation to require health insurance plans to cover all pregnancy care—including abortion, prenatal care, childbirth, and postpartum care—without any kind of cost-sharing. Any financial barrier to reproductive health care limits people’s ability to make personal decisions about their reproductive destiny, and we won’t stop working until every person can realize true reproductive freedom.