October 1, 2026
BOSTON (BP) – Massachusetts will allow women to get abortions at any stage of pregnancy “based upon the professional judgment of the physician,” according to the state’s new law expanding access beyond the previous 24-week limit.
The new law will take effect in early November, just about the time voters in Idaho, Missouri, Nevada, and Virginia will vote on abortion access in ballot initiatives.
Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission President Evan Lenow called Massachusetts’ new law horrific.
“By signing the new abortion bill into law, Gov. (Maura) Healey is responsible for authorizing the deaths of an untold number of babies up to the point of birth. These babies are persons made in the image of God with inherent value and dignity, which is now unrecognized by Massachusetts law,” Lenow told Baptist Press. “What is happening in states like these is the very reason we are committed to placing life-saving ultrasound machines in pregnancy resource centers across the country, especially where these precious preborn children are in such danger. We are also actively working to end chemical abortion, which is the latest challenge in the fight against abortion.”
Previously in Massachusetts, such late-term abortions could only be performed under a narrow set of circumstances related to the mother’s physical and mental health, or a “grave fetal diagnosis” indicating the delivered fetus would be “incompatible with sustained life outside the uterus,” the text of the previous law reads. The new law gives physicians liberty in recommending late-term abortions, with insurance companies required to cover such operations.
“It is reprehensible,” Lenow said, “that our society would tolerate, much less celebrate, this egregious practice of abortion. We pray for – and actively work toward – the day when the act of abortion will be not only illegal, but also unthinkable.”
In signing the law on Monday, Healey said she is intent on the state having the “strongest abortion protections in the country.”
“I’ve heard heartbreaking stories from women and families who were preparing to welcome a healthy baby into their family, only to receive devastating news later in their pregnancy,” Healey said in a public statement. “Instead of being able to rely on the doctors they knew and trusted at home, they were forced to travel hundreds of miles and pay out of their pockets while navigating unimaginable grief.”
Elsewhere as abortion legality plays out at the ballot box, voters in Idaho have the option to approve abortion access until fetal viability or the third trimester, after 24 weeks, according to Ballotpedia.com. Currently, women in Idaho can only get abortions when the pregnancy endangers the mother’s life, or in cases of rape and incest. Otherwise, the state has protected the unborn since 2020.
Nevada voters are being asked to approve a constitutional amendment guaranteeing abortion rights in a measure voters first passed in 2024, which must pass this year to take effect. Nearly two-thirds of Nevada voters, 63.47 percent, approved the measure in 2024.
Nevada’s ballot initiative, Question 6, would enshrine abortion rights in the state constitution, allowing abortions until fetal viability, considered 24 weeks’ gestation, with exceptions past that point to protect the mother’s life or mental health. Current Nevada law does the same, but it is not enshrined in the constitution.
Virginia voters will also vote on whether to enshrine abortion rights in the state constitution through fetal viability, with exceptions related to the mother’s life or general health. Currently, Virginia state law carries the same protections and limitations.
Missouri is the only state with a ballot measure to protect unborn life, asking voters to overturn a measure voters approved in 2024 to enshrine abortion rights in the state constitution. The ballot measure would limit abortions to cases of “medical emergency, fetal anomaly, rape, or incest,” and would only allow abortions through the 12th week of pregnancy in cases of rape or incest, according to the text of the measure at Ballotpedia.com.
In the same measure, Amendment 3, Missouri voters would prohibit gender transition surgeries, cross-sex hormones and puberty-blockers for minors, allowing similar treatments only when “unrelated to the purpose of a gender transition.”
In addition to Missouri, abortion is constitutionally protected in nine other states, Ballotpedia reported, namely Arizona, California, Colorado, Maryland, Michigan, Montana, New York, Ohio and Vermont.
Elections will be held Nov. 3.
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This article appeared in Baptist Press.
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