By: Kinga Borondy
BOSTON - The state's political muscle was on display on the steps of the Statehouse Monday when many lawmakers gathered to affirm a woman’s right to access safe, legal and available health care, including medication abortions.
Gov. Mau hand-picked and extremist judges in other parts of the country. She was flanked by many of the state’s leaders: from the federal delegation that included U.S. Sen. ElizabethWarren, U.S. Reps. Ayanna Pressley and Lori Trahan to local leaders including Boston Mayor Michelle Wu, Senate President Karen Spilka and House Speaker Ron Mariano.
“Nothing has changed, nothing is going to change,” Healey said. “We are not concerned with litigation; we are not concerned with liability here in Massachusetts.”
Lawmakers ready to fight for women's reproductive health
To that end, her administration has requested that the state stockpile 15,000 doses of mifepristone, the first of a two-drug system used with misoprostol that is administered to induce abortion.
That’s enough medication to ensure more than a year’s supply to treat the state’s residents as well as those who would come to the state to seek reproductive health care. The medication, in use for 23 years, is also used to treat lupus, address issues with miscarriages and even prevent ulcers.
Attorney General Andrea Campbell notes that once Roe v. Wade was overturned, it put into jeopardy all civil rights at a lunchtime announcement Monday that ensures all Massachusetts residents will still have access to abortion.
Healy moved to stockpile the medication weeks before the April 7 decision handed down by the federal district court judge in Amarillo, Texas, that found the Federal Drug Administration had erred in approving the drug more than 20 years ago. U.S. District Court Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk, a Trump appointee, sided with the Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine in its suit against the FDA.
A second, contradictory ruling, issued by U.S. District Court Judge Thomas O. Rice, an Obama appointee sitting in Washington state, blocks the federal agency from limiting access to the medication. It is expected that the case could, ultimately, be heard by the U.S. Supreme Court.
The medicine is the most commonly used form of abortion in the United States. If mifepristone becomes unavailable nationwide, Healey promised the state would continue to ensure access to abortion by going to the second drug in the regime.
“The FDA is well suited to address this challenge,” Healey said, noting that the federal government has appealed the Texas decision and should continue to make decisions concerning the health and well-being of the U.S. population.
Citizens speak out
Bill Rowe of Arlington, accompanied his wife, June, of the Mystic Valley Action for Reproductive Justice, to mark the importance of Healey’s lunchtime announcement.
Bill and June Rowe of Arlington attended the lunchtime announcement by Gov. Maura Healey Monday, guaranteeing access to legal, safe abortions.
“It pisses me off,” Bill Rowe said of the Texas judge’s move. “Some guy thought he could decide for everyone. The courts used to be good in the ‘50’s and ‘60’s. I used to think of judges as gods. Now they can’t be trusted.”
For her part, Warren exhorted the gathered crowd to work the ballot box and make sure to elect representatives that will guarantee the rights of women and ensure that access to abortion returns as the law of the land.
“Get mad Massachusetts, stay mad, and channel that anger to making real change,” Warren said. “I have lived in an America where abortion was illegal; we are not going back, not now, not ever.”
U.S. Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley stands with Gov. Maura Healey and the state delegation April 10 in supporting women's rights to reproductive health care and continued access to medication abortion in the state.
In her remarks, Wu opted against iterating the anger and despair she felt at the endless need to fight and defend the right for women to access medical treatment, including abortion, and to fight for hegemony over their own bodies.
She called the fight a distraction, designed to obscure the fight for gun safety, for environmental justice, for treatment of the opioid crisis and for educational justice.
Where residents of other states can exercise their ballot box rights, Massachusetts will protect the rights of its residents.
“Move to Massachusetts, we have your back,” Wu said.
