“Massachusetts cannot afford to sit on its defenses,” in connection with reproductive health care, said Claire Teylouni, of Reproductive Equity Now. “This is lifesaving care.”

Reproductive Equity Now President Rebecca Hart Holder highlighted Dewar's work in the attorney general's office, particularly around reproductive rights. She said Dewar wrote briefs opposing Texas's six-week abortion ban and bounty hunter law, and "made critical contributions to dozens of multistate briefs filed in cases across the country regarding abortion access and gender-affirming care."

“Affordable and equitable doula care can be an essential tool to reduce racial health disparities and combat the Black maternal morbidity crisis,” Rebecca Hart Holder, president of Reproductive Equity Now, a Boston nonprofit that advocates for equitable reproductive services, said in a statement

Rebecca Hart Holder, president of Reproductive Equity Now, a Boston nonprofit that advocates for equitable reproductive access, applauded Dewar for her role in authoring briefs against Texas Law SB8, the Texas six-week abortion ban and bounty hunter law.

Reproductive Equity Now President Rebecca Hart Holder said state supreme courts play a vital role in defending reproductive rights, “and that has never been more true than in a post-Dobbs America.”

Rebecca Hart Holder, president of Reproductive Equity Now, said in a statement that Dewar wrote briefs arguing against Texas’s law banning most abortions after six weeks and contributed to dozens of others surrounding abortion access.

“We know that Bessie will bring her brilliant legal mind to the Supreme Judicial Court to make profound impacts and create a lasting legacy for reproductive freedom in the Commonwealth,” she said.

Ahead of the vote, Reproductive Equality Now submitted a petition signed by 450 people urging the council to reinstate contracts with Planned Parenthood of Northern New England, Equality Health Center, and Lovering Health Center.

“This petition is a clear mandate from New Hampshire voters that the Executive Council must stand with our state’s clinics and the patients they serve and fund Family Planning Programs. Enough is enough. Support our health care,” said Christina Warriner, the New Hampshire state director of the organization.

“In Massachusetts, we know that access to reproductive health care options is critical for safe and informed decision making. Colleges and universities have a responsibility to ensure this access for their students, but they don’t have to go it alone,” Healey said in a statement. “We’re grateful to the Legislature for taking action to expand access to reproductive care campuses, and we are proud to launch this collaboration with the Reproductive Equity Now Foundation to support colleges and universities through implementation.”

“Our hope is that university administrators will have the support, tools, and resources to implement medication abortion readiness plans and increase access to care for all of their students. Students deserve access to the health care they need, when, and where they need it,” said Rebecca Hart Holder, president of the Reproductive Equity Now Foundation, in a statement to the Boston Business Journal.

"These are really critical provisions that do work to unpack the abortion exceptionalism that has resulted in abortion care being treated entirely differently from every other type of medical care in our health care system," said Claire Teylouni, director of government affairs for the Reproductive Equity Now coalition.