On August 10, Gov. Maura Healey signed Chapter 188 of the Acts of 2026 which legalized late term abortions all the way up until the moment of birth. The law eliminates Massachusetts' 24-week gestational limit on abortion, removes the requirement for a second physician's opinion, and drops the rule that later procedures be performed in hospitals.
Democrats in the state legislature overwhelmingly approved it. Then their own members started publicly running from it.
State Rep. Jeffrey Turco, a Democrat, called the law "extremist and dangerous."
State Rep. Chris Markey (D-Dartmouth) put it plainly: "While many are pro-choice, you can still be pro-choice and see this law as going beyond the norms of acceptability." That's a sitting Democrat telling his own caucus that they've left the bounds of what normal people consider reasonable.
State Rep. Alan Silvia, another Democrat, specifically opposed the expansion beyond 24 weeks. Not because he's secretly conservative. Because the law went somewhere that even loyal party members couldn't follow.
So what exactly did H.5595 do? It replaced specific medical criteria for late-term procedures with a single physician's "professional judgment" — a standard so broad it functionally means anything qualifies. It eliminated the second-opinion requirement. It removed the hospital-only mandate. Every guardrail that existed to ensure later abortions involved genuine medical necessity was stripped out and replaced with one doctor's say-so.
Governor Healey's defense was revealing: "In Massachusetts, women and their families shouldn't have to cross state lines for abortion care doctors can provide in our state." The framing is access. The reality is that no other state offers abortion up until the moment of birth, which can be performed in a back alley by a non-trained professional because it's insane.
The left-wing legal establishment will frame opposition to this law as anti-choice extremism. Which is an interesting argument to make when the opposition is coming from inside the Democratic caucus. These aren't Heritage Foundation fellows. They're Democratic state representatives from Massachusetts — a state so blue it makes Vermont look like a swing state — and they're using words like "extremist" and "beyond the norms of acceptability."
The Supreme Court sent abortion rights back to the states, and blue state legislatures treated that newfound power as an invitation to see how far they could push the limits. New York expanded. Colorado expanded. California expanded. But Massachusetts just lapped the field — and the lap was so wide that their own teammates pulled over.