With The Roe Act now law in Massachusetts, Myrna Maloney Flynn, MCFL president,  reflects on pro-life wins along the way, but also says there is a lot of work ahead.

EWTN's Catherine Haddro delves into why the ROE Act has been called the "infanticide act;" and looks ahead to plans by citizens to repeal an elitist legislature's override of Governor Baker's ROE veto.

View the entire episode online at EWTN Pro-Life Weekly.

Join the movement in Massachusetts today! Register as an MCFL member here.

In a vote of 107 to 46  in the House and 32 to 8 in the Senate, the Massachusetts State legislature chose to override Governor Baker’s veto of H.5179, also known as the “R.O.E.” Act. In an elitist gesture that not only ignored the governor’s commonsense rejection of special interests items in a state budget bill, but also tens of thousands of their constituents vocal opposition, the legislature has sent a clear message to Massachusetts citizens: We work for the abortion lobby, not for you or the public health. 

You can download a printable PDF of the roll call voting record showing exactly how each lawmaker voted on this anti-life bill here. Or view the list below.

CONTACT THOSE LAWMAKERS WHO VOTED AGAINST THEIR CONSTITUENTS, AND AGAINST PROTECTING VULNERABLE BY OVERRIDING GOV. BAKER'S VETO.

Our members have been using a variation on the below letter to email and/or call their lawmakers since the override vote.

You can look up your state representative or senator by clicking here and inputting your address.

Dear Senator/Representative...

I cannot express strongly enough how disappointed I am in your vote to override Governor Baker's veto of H5179. As you well know, Massachusetts has some of the most liberal abortion laws in the nation. This bill, underhandedly rammed through after the original, poorly-written ROE Act received so much opposition it could not clear committee, is simply an assault on our basic standards of healthcare, especially women's health, in the Commonwealth.

It expands abortion through all 40 weeks, endangering women's lives, and making possible the killing of living, breathing babies capable of feeling pain.  In addition, this legislation has been labelled the "Infanticide Act," because it permits doctors to deny life-saving medical care to a clearly living newborn infants born alive during an abortion. This is known as "passive infanticide." (Supporters of this legislation have been arguing that it requires life-saving equipment to be present at the place of the abortion. Although this is true, that is already required under current law. What is new, is that this legislation REMOVED the requirement for the doctor to USE the life-saving equipment to "take all reasonable steps... to preserve the life and health of the aborted child.")

At a time when we are taking extreme and unprecedented measures to preserve the lives of our fellow Bay Staters, what lead you to vote to radically increase the number of unborn children put to death in our Commonwealth through abortion?  Sustaining the veto, and the lives of our most vulnerable, would have been easy. Know that I, [name], will not be voting to sustain your tenure in our legislature next election.

Signed,

[Name + Address]

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

MA STATE LEGISLATURE OVERRIDES GOVERNOR, RAMS THROUGH EXTREME ABORTION BILL DURING COVID

Boston, MA -- December 29, 2020 -- In a vote of 107 to 46  in the House and 32 to 8 in the Senate, the Massachusetts State legislature chose to override Governor Baker’s veto of H.5179, also known as the “R.O.E.” Act. In an elitist gesture that not only ignored the governor’s commonsense rejection of special interests items in a state budget bill, but also tens of thousands of their constituents vocal opposition, the legislature has sent a clear message to Massachusetts citizens: We work for the abortion lobby, not for you or the public health. 

Myrna Maloney Flynn, president of Massachusetts Citizens for Life, issued the following statement: 

The ROE Act was introduced nearly two years ago. Every day since then, thousands of Massachusetts Citizens for Life members, who reside in every corner of our state, used their voices to speak for those who cannot. They learned the truth about this irresponsible and dangerous legislation and bravely spread that truth within their communities -- even during a pandemic. Almost as disheartening as this new law is the fact that legislators rammed this damaging bill through during Covid, inserting it into the state budget, knowing our opposition could not fight it in person due to quarantine restrictions.

So while we pause today to grieve for the many lives that will be severely damaged and lost as a result of the ROE Act, we anticipate, much as abolitionists did, the inevitability of a brighter tomorrow. 

Pro-lifers know setbacks. What we don't know how to do is give up, look the other way, and allow injustice to stand.

We know the truth is worth pursuing! We know the lives we work to protect are worth every minute of our time in this life. We know without a doubt that our supporters, by their advocacy over the last 24 months, changed minds and opened hearts, even our governor's. And we look forward to continuing our work alongside the citizens of Massachusetts, who already know the value of human life and are eager to educate and support others and to ultimately illuminate the inherent right to life of the unborn. 

As we have done since January 23, 1973, Massachusetts Citizens for Life will work tirelessly to make abortion unthinkable. And we will prevail.

At MCFL, we will continue to highlight the stories of women like Melissa Ohden, whose life would have been thrown away under “R.O.E.” Act provisions when she was born alive during a late-term abortion. We will continue to advocate for legal protection and medical support for babies like Hope Dupell and their mothers, who deserve physicians obligated by law to heal, not encouraged by laws like “R.O.E.” to discriminate against them because of a prenatal disability diagnosis. We will fight for women like Keisha Atkins, who lost her life to an extremist late-term abortion law in New Mexioc that prioritized “access” over safety. 

Massachusetts Citizens for Life is the Commonwealth's single solely dedicated pro-life human rights organization. Founded in 1973, MCFL continues to advocate for the most vulnerable citizens in the Bay State: the preborn and the elderly and disabled.

BAKER VETOES "R.O.E." ACT (H.5179) Christmas Eve; PRO-LIFE CITIZENS' MESSAGE, "KILL BILL, NOT BABY"

MCFL mobilized thousands of citizens across the state to call the governor's office from Thanksgiving onward. "He clearly heard the message," say members.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE -- December 28, 2020, Boston, MA -- Massachusetts Citizens for Life (MCFL)  applauds Governor Baker's action on December 24, 2020, Christmas Eve, vetoing the heinously anti-life bill H.5179, also and previously known as An Act Removing Obstacles and Expanding Access to Abortion in MA.

"Kill the bill, not the baby!" said Fernando Limbo, a member based in Revere, "Even our pro-choice governor can see the harm in this bill, and thank God for this Christmas Eve gift protecting life."

H.5179, nearly the same as "R.O.E."'s earlier draft, still:

• Allows underage girls to get abortions without their parents’ consent or even knowledge. (340 girls under the age of 18 had abortions in Massachusetts in 2019. Under this legislation their parents would no longer have the right to even know.)

• Allows doctors to deny life-saving medical care to a clearly viable baby born alive during an abortion. This is known as “passive infanticide.”

• Extends legal abortion all the way to 40 weeks for effectively any reason “to preserve the patient’s physical or mental health.” (emphasis added)

Speaker of the House, Robert DeLeo, responded--utilizing his Christmas Eve to promise that the House would "override the veto."

“It is appalling that, on the eve of the birth of Christ, Speaker DeLeo would promise to ram through legislation that expands the killing of babies,” said Patricia Stewart, Esq., Executive Director of MCFL.

The original bill, H.3320/S.1209, languished in committee, unable to fight commonsense opposition by citizens on both sides of the party line. Representative Claire Cronin drafted an amendment to the annual state budget to underhandedly sneak the deadly bill into law before the new year.

Following her action, both House and Senate approved the bill; but Baker rejected it.

"We expect our lawmakers to listen both to their hearts -- and their constituents," said C.J. Williams, MCFL Director of Community Engagement, "This bill is about abortion, at any cost. It is about so-called access--even to the detriment of women's health. It is not pro-choice, it is not pro-life. Kill this bill, not our babies -- and not our women!"

Members and other citizens will be contacting their state representatives all this week with just that message. Kill the bill, not the baby. H.5179 was vetoed for good reason; and MCFL expects our lawmakers in Massachusetts to respect the lives of its citizens and the voices of their constituents.

“Tell them Massachusetts MUST do better than the”R.O.E.” Act,” said MCFL President, Myrna Maloney Flynn, “For all of our citizens: Our women, our infants, and our daughters.”'

Easy-to-use list of state representatives here. You're the one they need to hear from -- tell them to kill the bill, not the baby, and to sustain the veto!

ACTION ALERT: Call Your State SENATOR!

Look up your senator at this link: http://malegislature.gov/search/findmylegislator

Governor Charlie Baker vetoed H.5179 on Christmas Eve

This week, it returned to the House of Representatives, where it originated. The House overrode the governor's veto. What we need you to do is email, call, and send social media messages to your state senator, and to at least two others on the list here  asking them to sustain the veto. While messages from constituents will make the largest impact, we need ALL Massachusetts citizens to continue to email and call their senators.

 --Thank you all who called the below representatives tirelessly this last week urging them to stand with courage for the lives our little ones and women.

We we will be providing a roll-call vote record when we have it, showing how your representatives voted on the veto. You can then choose to vote these men or women out of office. This is the original list, linked here. 

These men and women have committed to upholding the rights of our fellow citizens, and creating just and life-affirming laws. An elitist, out-of-touch legislature is not a just governing body; we look forward to removing the men and women from office who have not voted to protect life in our state.

MOST CURRENT UPDATE on the "R.O.E." Act -- refiled as H.5179  (12/17/2020)

"R.O.E." failed to pass committee review after thousands of citizens gathered to oppose it in bth 2019 and 2020. Pro-abortion lobbyists then inserted the provisions found in "R.O.E" into the annual state budget, where house and senate versions were reconciled as "section 40" and sent to Governor Baker for approval or veto. Governor Baker had previously stated that he would veto "R.O.E" and reject any legislation including its provisions that legalize passive infanticide and remove parental consent. Baker rejected most of the pro-abortion provisions, including the lowering of consent for our children to 16 and removing parental consent. He left in provisions that would permit passive infanticide. 

Representatives Marc Lombardo and Allyson Sullivan have introduced an amendment to the state budget to protect our infants born alive during an abortion,  “Guaranteeing Medical Care to Babies Born Alive,” which reads as follows:

If an abortion is performed pursuant to section 12-N, the facility where the abortion is performed shall maintain life-supporting equipment, as defined by the department of public health, the physician performing the abortion must use life saving measures to preserve the life and health of a live birth and the patient.

Contact your state representative to ask him or to support the amendment, "Guaranteeing Medical Care to Babies Born Alive," and tell them you expect them to support a veto of the budget if it includes the "R.O.E" Act's

abortion expansion.

 You can look up your senator at MALEGISLATURE.GOV/findmylegislator

Hundreds of citizens gathered today on the State House steps, despite a Nor'easter the dumped sheets of rain on demonstration. Why were there out in frigid wind and pouring rain on a December weekend? 

This past couple of months, abortion lobbyists--having failed to convince the public or our lawmakers to approve of the "R.O.E" Act, underhandedly inserted it as an amendment to our state budget. Both state and house versions of the budget were approved; and the bill was reconciled by committee and sent to the governor's desk as section 40 of our annual state budget.

This section, a slightly repackaged "R.O.E.", has now --

• made legal doctors allowing to die a baby born alive during an abortion
• removed parental consent for underage girls entering an abortion clinic
• removed all penalties in current law for violations of the law in regard to abortion; an abortionist cannot be prosecuted for harming the woman
• expanded late-term abortions up to birth

These provisions directly contradict our national and state principles of protecting the vulnerable, defending individual human lives, and supplying the highest level of medical to patients regardless of their background or resources. Under these extreme abortion-promoting provisions, women like Melissa will be left to die. Under these provisions, women like Keisha Atkins will continue to be abused, used, and die from late-term abortionists like Curtis Boyd. Under these provisions, an abortion can be performed by any medical worker, without having a license or MD.

Who wouldn't rally in the hundreds and thousands to oppose "R.O.E."? 

The gathering included citizens from across the state.

Because, as Fernando--one of the many young demonstrators--said: "#SaveMABabies!"

As MCFL members, fellow pro-lifers, and citizens who would have identified as pro-choice under other circumsances, dropped roses on the steps, they asked Governor Baker: Please veto section 40.

Massachusetts can do better. Massachusetts deserves better.

To all of you who showed up in the driving rain, thank you.

To all of you who called tirelessly, sent letters, and posted on social media, thank you!

Thank you.

"We must participate, as citizens, inongoing activities to replace the discriminatory and lethal solution of abortion with support, love, and authentic equality,"  said C.J. Williams, MCFL director of community engagement, "And Governor Baker, thank you for opposing legislation that promotes violence, that removes authentic care, from our state law. We need to reject access over safety, and reject section 40."

Keep calling now through next week! 617 -725-4005. Ask him to veto section 40. 

The "R.O.E." Act, or S.1209/H.3320, having stalled in the Joint Committee on the Judiciary, has been re-packaged by Representative Claire Cronin as Amendment 759 to the Annual Massachusetts Budget; and as Amendment 180 in the Senate.

It has since been reconciled by committee as section 40 in the proposed annual budget bill, and forwarded to Governor Charlie Baker to approve or veto. Baker (as reported here) line-vetoed much of the abortion-promoting provisions, including a veto of the removal of parental consent for children under 18 seeking abortions. 

The ROE Act as Amendments 180/ 759: Just the facts

compiled by a legal team of pro-life attorneys and lobbyists

• Amendment #789 to H5150 would eliminate current laws requiring that physicians “take all reasonable steps to preserve the life and health of the aborted child” — The following language in the current law is clear in its requirement to preserve the life of the child:

Section 12P. If an abortion is performed pursuant to section twelve M, the physician performing the abortion shall take all reasonable steps, both during and subsequent to the abortion, in keeping with good medical practice, consistent with the procedure being used, to preserve the life and health of the aborted child.

The new language states only that there must be “life-supporting equipment” present, and eliminates the requirement for the abortionist to actually USE it.

• This amendment would allow for abortions after a 24-week period, citing that it only be deemed “necessary, in the best medical judgment of the physician, to preserve the patient’s physical or mental health”
• Children born after the 24-week mark, ​according to the New England Journal of Medicine,​ if provided with medical treatment, have a survival rate of more than 50 percent — a number that jumps up to 72 percent at 25 weeks.
• The pro-abortion Guttmacher Institute, named after former Planned Parenthood president and eugenics supporter Dr. Allan Frank Guttmacher, has acknowledged​ “that most women seeking later terminations are ​not doing so for reasons of fetal anomaly or life endangerment.”
• This amendment repeals parental consent requirements for minors between the ages of 16 and 17, and allows doctors to waive the requirement for parental consent for girls of ANY age who believe they may be pregnant.
• This amendment expands who can perform an abortion to now include a physician assistant, nurse practitioner, or nurse midwife.

Weekly Column

By Myrna Maloney Flynn, MCFL President

As you plan your week, I want to let you know how our state legislators may be planning theirs. With the election behind us and time running out on the current two-year legislative session, our elected officials are lining up tasks like bowling pins, positioning them just so, primed for a strike. Among the bills that could be presented for a vote in the coming days: the ROE Act and Doctor-Prescribed Suicide. 

A few reminders about the ROE Act:

• The name of this legislation is an acronym -- Remove Obstacles and Expand Access to Abortion. It has nothing to do with Roe vs. Wade. 
• It aims to make abortion more “accessible” (in a state where nearly 20,000 abortions are already performed each year). 
• If passed, the bill would enable girls as young as 12 to obtain abortions without any adult, except the abortionist, knowing about it. 
• ROE would remove life-saving medical equipment from rooms where abortions are performed, risking the lives of babies, Massachusetts citizens, who survive the procedure. 
• ROE would legalize any late-term abortion up through the 9th month of pregnancy.
• You, the taxpayer, would see more of your own money paying for every one of these atrocious human rights violations.

Because it’s Monday, and we’re back to work and school, let’s do this. True or false: Proponents claim we must pass ROE, now that Amy Coney Barrett is a Supreme Court Justice, increasing the likelihood that the Court will overturn Roe vs. Wade. 

True!

Yet what’s false is the implication that overturning the landmark 1973 decision will outlaw abortion in Massachusetts. If Roe vs. Wade is overturned, nothing will change here. Abortion will still be legal. But that’s not what ROE Act supporters say. They are pushing a dangerous bill because the public is listening, not for any valid reason. Even Governor Baker, who is pro-choice, agrees that our current abortion law is sufficient and the ROE Act is unnecessary. And here's the kicker that no one is talking about. In the unlikely event that abortion is outlawed at the federal level, then the ROE Act is moot. In any scenario, this bill is senseless.

Also at the top of the state legislature’s priority list in the coming days: Doctor-Prescribed Suicide. Read about the dangers of this at the Patients Rights Action Fund, then urge your legislator to block this bill as well. 

You’ve got the ability to call or write to your legislators, urging them to to vote against both of these life-devaluing bills. Harness the motivation you feel in the wake of Saturday’s election results -- we will not stop fighting for life in the four years ahead. If anything, we will fight harder, with bigger hearts, a positive attitude, and bolstered by the truth that love and respect for the life of every person wins the day. 

Check out the “how to” below, then take five minutes to contact your legislator now. 

Thank you for partnering with us! We are so proud to be alongside you in this most important issue of them all. 

Here's how to find your state representative if you do not know their name or contact information.

1. Go to Find My Legislator here on the MA Legislature web page.
2. Type in your address and include your zip code.
3. After you have entered your address, a new page will show up.
4. Click on the names of your state senator and state representative. You will be taken to a page with their email and their phone number.

Call and email them to today, telling them our state does not need ROE or Doctor-Prescribed Suicide. 

If you've never called your state representative, this handy phone script may help!

Remember, 100% of our operating budget is funded by individual members like you. Please consider signing up to support our life-saving work on a monthly basis, or make a one-time contribution here.

Member DeeDee Dorrington describes each point in our law removed by the "R.O.E." Act. This bill would directly erase medical safeguards for women and infants in Massachusetts, and promote late-term abortion access for any reason over the safety of our daughters and our women. Watch the video below, and share with your friends! Pro-life and pro-choice voters agree: "R.O.E" is a a huge NO because it would permit infanticide, remove 3-day long grueling late-term abortions from the hospital setting, and and remove parental consent and judicial supervision of our underage daughters who might be at-risk for abortion.

Watch here.

Call the Judiciary Committee and tell them you expect them to reject "R.O.E" (S.1209/H.3320) by or before November 12th!

Chair Claire Cronin: (617) 722-2396

Vice Chair Michael Day: (617) 722-2396