H 1985

An Act to advance the safety of women seeking to terminate a pregnancy

Primary Sponsor: Rep. Elizabeth Poirier, R-North Attleboro
Committee Assignment: Joint Committee on Public Health
Summary: Also known as the “Woman’s Safety Act,” this bill seeks to have some 16 unlicensed, non-hospital facilities in Massachusetts that perform 10 or more abortions annually be classified as a “clinic” and, thus, required to obtain a license and periodic safety inspection.

Quick Facts:

• This Act aims to reduce potential health risks to women who feel compelled to use these facilities.
• Are unlicensed abortion facilities safe? No one knows. We do know that in 2007, a Cape Cod woman underwent an abortion in one such facility and died in the recovery room.
• Amending the definition of “clinic” in §52 of Chapter 111 to include these facilities will not impose an undue burden on facility operators. It will merely require them to follow the same licensing and inspection requirements as other medical facilities in the Commonwealth.
• In 2015, 1,275 women in Massachusetts obtained an abortion in facilities that were neither licensed nor inspected. Surely people on both sides of the issue can agree that women seeking to terminate a pregnancy deserve to be safe.

H 3429

Women’s Right to Know Act

Primary Sponsor: Rep. Elizabeth Poirier, R-North Attleboro

Committee Assignment: Joint Judiciary Committee

Summary: Also known as “Laura’s Law,” this informed consent bill honors Laura Hope Smith, a young woman who died while recovering from an abortion at a substandard facility on Cape Cod in 2007. It seeks to require abortion facilities to inform clients fully about the abortion procedure, the possible immediate and long-term risks to the mother; and to offer the mother the completely optional opportunity to see her baby on ultrasound. A 24-hour waiting period would be imposed to ensure considered, informed decisions were made.

Quick Facts:

Currently, there is no requirement for abortion providers to inform a woman seeking to terminate a pregnancy of information material to her decision which includes:

• complete and accurate facts of fetal development and the developmental stage of her unborn child,
• full and accurate information about abortion risks, including the well-documented risk of an adverse psychological impact,
• full and accurate information about abortion alternatives and how to pursue them, and
• an opportunity for mature consideration of all relevant information to arrive at a truly informed decision.

H 557

Prenatal Development Education Act

Primary Sponsor: Rep. Elizabeth Poirier, R-North Attleboro

Committee Assignment: Joint Committee on Education

Summary: This bill will require 7th, 8th, or 9th grade students to be taught the correct scientific facts about human prenatal development. The goal of this instruction is to help them recognize the humanity of the unborn child and prepare them for the responsibilities of future parenthood.

Quick Facts:

• Students’ knowledge of human biology is not comprehensive without studying prenatal development.
• Lack of knowledge of prenatal development contributes to insufficient prenatal care, poor nutrition, and failure to avoid drugs and alcohol during pregnancy. The consequences of these abuses include low birth weight, fetal alcohol syndrome, risk of premature birth, and birth defects.

H 3428

An act relative to coerced abortion

Primary Sponsor: Rep. Elizabeth Poirier, R-North Attleboro

Committee Assignment: Joint Committee on the Judiciary

Summary: This bill requires facilities performing abortions to inform a pregnant woman seeking an abortion that no one can force her to have an abortion against her will. It requires both verbal notification and the posting of a sign in the abortion facility notifying patients of these rights. Failure to post the required sign carries a fine. An individual injured by the failure to post the sign or to provide verbal notification to the pregnant woman may bring a civil action for damages.

Quick Facts:

• As many as 62% of post-abortive women report that they felt forced into making the abortion decision.
• Pregnant women often undergo severe pressure and coercion, from their husbands, partners, family and employer to undergo an abortion

H 3435

An act banning partial-birth abortions

Primary Sponsor: Rep. Elizabeth A. Poirier, R-North Attleboro

Committee Assignment: Joint Committee on Judiciary

Summary: The bill bans abortions in which the child is partially delivered in such a way that a portion of the baby remains inside the mother and portion outside and then is killed. Criminal penalties would apply to the abortionist who violates this act.

Quick Facts:

• This bill would ban abortions at any stage of development where the child is partially delivered first.
• State law already bans abortion after 24 weeks, except under certain circumstances.
• The medical community consensus is that abortion is never medically necessary to save a mother’s life.
• Most abortions are conducted without delivering the child first. Once in the standard position for partial-birth abortion, the child is just moments away from being fully born with full legal protections anyway.

H 3433

An act relative to [pain capable] unborn children

Primary Sponsor: Rep. Elizabeth A. Poirier, R-North Attleboro

Committee Assignment: Joint Committee on Judiciary

Summary: The bill would ban abortions on an unborn child capable of feeling pain, which is defined as being after 20 weeks gestation. Criminal penalties would apply to the abortionist for conducting abortions after this time, except where the death of the child was an unintended consequence of treating a serious health risk to the mother. Abortionists would also be required to determine the age of the unborn child before performing an abortion, except in the case of a medical emergency. The bill would also require that abortions on unborn children after 13 weeks be conducted in a hospital with surgical facilities.

Quick Facts:

• By 20 weeks after fertilization, all the physical structures necessary to experience pain have developed.
• Unborn children react to painful stimuli, and their hormonal reactions consistent with pain can be measured.
• For the purposes of surgery on unborn children, fetal anesthesia is routinely administered and is associated with a decrease in stress hormones compared to their level when painful stimuli are applied without such anesthesia.
• Sixteen states have passed similar laws (one has had it declared unconstitutional by the 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals) and a Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection bill has been introduced in the House in the current session of the US Congress.

S 263  

An act relative to healthy youth

Primary Sponsor: Sal DiDomenico

Committee Assignment: Joint Committee on Education

H 410  

An act relative to healthy youth

Primary Sponsor: Paul Brodeur, James O’Day

Committee Assignment: Joint Committee on Education

Summary: Sex Ed, Frameworks

Quick Facts:

• This sex education bill would explicitly teach young people the acceptability of abortion among the “options for pregnancy”.
• It makes the MA Health Curriculum Frameworks the legal standard for compliance for sexuality education programs in all public school districts. The Frameworks are currently written explain to young people how to obtain an abortion or contraceptives without parental knowledge.
• Future revisions of the Frameworks would rest solely in the hands of the commissioner of education, meaning loss of control by parents in local districts to determine the content of sexuality education programs.