Massachusetts’ Republican Gov. Charlie Baker on Friday signed into law a bill to preserve abortion rights in the state in the event that the Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade.
Some states are worried the ruling could be overturned if Brett Kavanaugh, President Trump’s pick to replace retiring Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy, is confirmed by the Senate.
“Massachusetts has long been a leader in women’s healthcare and access to family planning services, and signing this bipartisan bill into law is another step in the right direction,” Baker said in a statement.
Massachusetts’ law repeals a pre-Roe law that criminalizes abortion. It also repeals a law that requires an abortion conducted during or after 13 weeks of pregnancy to be performed in a hospital authorized for general surgery, according to a release on the bill signing.
It also repeals other laws including one that blocks doctors from giving birth control to women who are unmarried. Abortion rights groups praised the move by Baker.
“What we just saw in Massachusetts is indicative of what’s going on around the country,” said NARAL Pro-Choice America President Ilyse Hogue, in a statement. “Not only do people in this country want access to abortion and other reproductive rights secured, but the nomination of Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court moves people to learn their status in their own states and they most often don’t like what they see,”
Massachusetts is one of several states that have decided to enshrine abortion protections if Kavanaugh gets confirmed and Roe gets overturned. The state is the most supportive in the nation of abortion rights, with 74 percent saying the practice should be legal in most or all cases.
