Abortion in Massachusetts

By the end of the 1800s, all states in the Union, except Louisiana, had therapeutic exceptions in their legislative bans on abortions.[7] By the end of 1972, Mississippi allowed abortion in cases of rape or incest only, and Alabama and Massachusetts allowed abortions only in cases where the woman's physical health was endangered. In order to obtain abortions during this period, women would often travel from a state where abortion was illegal to states where it was legal.[8] Massachusetts passed a law in the early 1980s requiring parental consent for minors seeking abortions. This resulted in minors delaying of up to 6 weeks before seeking an abortion.[9][10] Parental consent laws passed by Massachusetts and Minnesota in the 1980s created over 12,000 petitions to bypass consent. Of these, 21 were denied, and half of these denials were overturned on appeal.[9][11]

In 2007, the legislature passed a law that established a 35-foot buffer zone around abortion clinics.[12] However, this law was struck down in 2014 in McCullen v. Coakley.[12] As of 2017, Washington State, New Mexico, Illinois, Alaska, Maryland, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and New Jersey allow qualified non-physicians to prescribe drugs for medical abortions only.[13] As of May 2019, state law prohibited abortions after the fetus was viable, generally some point between week 24 and 28. This period uses a standard defined by the US Supreme Court in 1973 with the Roe v. Wade ruling.[14][15] The law stated: "No abortion may be performed, except by a physician, and only if it is necessary to save the life of the mother, or if a continuation of her pregnancy will impose on her a substantial risk of grave impairment of her physical or mental health."[15] Roe's Bill was scheduled to be debated in the fall of 2019.[15][16] In January 2019, Bill S.1209 was introduced in the state's Senate, where it was known as "Roe's Bill". The proposed bill would remove parental consent requirements for minors seeking abortions. It would also allow women to have abortions after week 24 if a woman's doctor said an abortion "is necessary to protect the patient's life or physical or mental health, or in cases of lethal fetal anomalies, or where the fetus is incompatible with sustained life outside the uterus".[15][17] Prior to 2020, state law banned abortion after week 24.[18] After the passage of the ROE Act in 2020, which codified abortion rights in the state, abortions can be performed after 24 weeks in cases of fetal anomalies and risks to a patient's mental or physical health. The ROE Act also lowered the age patients can have abortions without parental consent from 18 to 16.[4]

In the 1972 US Supreme Court case Eisenstadt v. Baird, the focus was on the issue of physicians' ability to prescribe contraceptive medications only to married couples.  The US Supreme Court ruled that single individuals had a right to buy contraceptives, and the law could not be used to limit distribution based on marital status.[19]

The US Supreme Court's decision in 1973's Roe v. Wade ruling meant the state could no longer regulate abortion in the first trimester.[7] However, the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, No. 19-1392, 597 U.S. ___ (2022) later in 2022.[20][21]

Bellotti v. Baird was before the US Supreme Court in 1979.  The Court ruled that attempts by Massachusetts to limit the ability of minors to get abortions by requiring parental consent or judicial reviews were unconstitutional.  This was because it removed the ability of minors to make decisions about their well-being, and giving the decision exclusively to their parents or the court; minors needed to be able to actively consent to the procedure and as such could make a request without first seeking parental approval.  The US Supreme Court ruled that minors, in getting permission from the courts, needed to be able to do so using a confidential process that dealt with the situation quickly.[19]

In 2014, in McCullen v. Coakley, the US Supreme Court struck down a Massachusetts law that had legalized a 35-foot buffer zone around abortion clinics in the state in 2007.[12]

Number of abortion clinics in Massachusetts by year

Between 1982 and 1992, the number of abortion clinics in the state decreased by 14, going from 78 in 1982 to 64 in 1992.[22] In 2014, there were 14 abortion clinics in the state.[23] In 2014, 43% of the counties in the state did not have an abortion clinic. That year, 14% of women in the state aged 15–44 lived in a county without an abortion clinic.[24] In 2017, there were five Planned Parenthood clinics, three of which offered abortion services, in a state with a population of 1,614,490 women aged 15–49.[25]

Women from the state participated in marches supporting abortion rights as part of a #StoptheBans movement in May 2019.[3]

During the early 20th century, Boston University and Harvard University led the early anti-abortion campaigns in their areas. Their efforts came out of another effort at the time to try to prevent women from enrolling in their medical schools.[5] Harvard Medical School graduate Dr. Horatio Storer led anti-abortion efforts at the American Medical Association starting in the late 19th century until his death in 1922.[6]

Between 1993 and 2015, 11 people were killed at American abortion clinics. On December 30, 1994, two receptionists, Shannon Lowney and Lee Ann Nichols, were killed in two clinic attacks in Brookline, Massachusetts. John Salvi was arrested for the murders, to which he then confessed. He also confessed to a non-lethal attack in Norfolk, Virginia, where he was arrested the day after the Brookline killings.[38][39] Salvi later died in prison of suspected suicide in November 1996. Guards found his body under his bed with a plastic garbage bag tied around his head.