The Massachusetts State House voted on Monday to overturn the governor’s veto of legislation that would expand access to abortion services in the state and codify access to abortion in state law.
The WBUR said the bill will now go to the state Senate, which is also expected to overturn Governor Charlie Baker (R )’s veto on the project’s Christmas Eve.
The bill that would decrease the age at which people can seek abortion from 18 to 16 years and would allow the procedure after 24 weeks of pregnancy in some cases.
Baker’s veto came after the legislature rejected his request to lower the age limit to obtain the procedure without parental or judicial consent.
The state chamber voted 107-46 to override the governor’s veto on Monday, according to the WBUR, just wiping out the two-thirds margin needed to do so.
State Democratic President Gus Bickford celebrated the results in a statement to the news station, accusing Baker of siding with his own party’s far right.
“Hoping we were all too busy to notice, Charlie Baker once again gave in to his Republican Party’s extreme right by vetoing critical provisions on access to abortion that would bring our laws into line with neighboring states like Maine, New York and Connecticut,” he said. Bickford. “Charlie Baker is choosing to stay with right-wing extremists, rather than doctors, women and the vast majority of voters in Massachusetts.”
State Republican President Jim Lyons told the WBUR that Baker’s decision “must send a message to lawmakers that this legislation has no place in a human society”.
Democrats worried about the future of abortion rights in the United States in the weeks after confirmation by the Supreme Court judge Amy Coney Barrett
Amy Coney BarrettDeath is a different pastor of Georgia’s megachurch with a positive test for COVID-19 Chris Christie posts video for people who refuse to wear a mask: ‘Learn from my experience’ MORE, who fear that leftist activists seek to overturn the historic case of abortion rights Roe v. Wade as part of his mandate at the highest court in the country.
These fears materialized for the first time during Barrett’s confirmation hearings, in which the then-nominee said she did not see Roe v. Wade as an issue permanently resolved.
At the same time, it was revealed that Barrett signed an ad calling for the University of Notre Dame to reaffirm its opposition to abortion and “renew our call for unborn children to be protected by law and welcome in life”.