Gov. Charlie Baker showed crucial leadership when his administration affirmed that abortion is essential health care during the COVID-19 pandemic, setting a positive example for the country.
But, while state lawmakers take dramatic action to limit human contact during this unprecedented public health crisis, they are leaving medically unnecessary abortion restrictions in place that force pregnant people in Massachusetts to risk multiple in-person contacts and even travel out of state for this essential health care.
That’s right; while our leaders rightly tell us to stay at home, our abortion laws force some patients to fly across the country and some young people to go to court or travel to a neighboring state to access care.
No matter your viewpoint on abortion, this concerns us all.
These laws have no medical rationale; indeed, they undermine the public health under normal circumstances. Under the extraordinary circumstances of this pandemic, these laws put patients at avoidable risk of contracting COVID-19 and infecting others, and undercut all our leaders and essential workers are doing to control spread of this deadly virus.
A bill to remove these outdated abortion obstacles — the ROE Act — is moving through our Legislature, with widespread public support. Bay Staters want harmful hurdles to abortion care off our books and the right encoded in state law, as the Supreme Court could gut the federal right by June.
Time is of the essence. We are fighting a global pandemic. Eliminating abortion barriers that promote spread of the coronavirus must be among the urgent actions our lawmakers take to defeat COVID-19 and protect the public.
Under current law Massachusetts women who receive a tragic fetal diagnosis later in pregnancy must travel to Colorado or New Mexico for abortion care. Enforcing this law during a pandemic is beyond cruel, and grossly negligent of the public health.
We must stop making women who receive terrible news later in pregnancy travel across the country for a procedure that can be done safely here in Massachusetts. We must stop condemning women mourning loss of a wanted pregnancy who can’t afford to travel, or can’t arrange travel under pandemic restrictions, or can’t leave an essential job, or are just too terrified to risk COVID exposure, to carry a dying fetus to term and risk needing more serious care in a hospital overstrained by coronavirus.
Our current law also forces some young people to seek a judge’s permission or travel out of state for abortion care. Since the vast majority (77%) of young people in Massachusetts involve parents in their decision, this law targets the young people who live in abusive households, or in foster care, or have parents who are incapacitated or incarcerated.
We must stop making vulnerable young people who need abortion care during the pandemic clear unnecessary hurdles that expose them and others to coronavirus. This law has no health benefit. It does not enhance family communication. With just one denial of a judge’s permission in 45 years, it’s clear this law only increases delays, cost, and fear for already imperiled young people.
Failure to remove these barriers exacerbates an already-obstruction ridden landscape for abortion at a time when pandemic restrictions are making this health care even harder to access. For young people quarantined in abusive households, and for women who are essential workers or have lost their job — disproportionately people of color — the obstacles are exponentially greater.
Failure to remove these barriers during a pandemic, to further spread of a highly communicable virus and unnecessarily endanger lives, is insupportable, privileging the political agenda of a minority over the health of us all.
In other countries — including Ireland, the U.K., and Canada — lawmakers have suspended abortion laws that necessitated travel or in-person appointments as emergency pandemic measures. Massachusetts must follow their example, and set a further example for this country, by acting expeditiously to remove these barriers to abortion, which undermine public health and our work to defeat COVID-19.
Please urge your legislators to pass the ROE Act as soon as possible. And please support our regional reproductive health care organizations. If you remain employed, consider sharing some of your stimulus check to help these local heroes continue to ensure safe access to this essential health care:
■Abortion Rights Fund of Western Massachusetts (arfwm.org), helping people cover the $700 cost of abortion care
■Planned Parenthood (plannedparenthood.org/planned-parenthood-massachusetts), providing reproductive health care, including abortion, via telehealth and essential outpatient services
■Tapestry (tapestryhealth.org), providing sexual and reproductive healthcare, including abortion referral, birth control, STI and HIV services.
Jenifer McKenna coordinates The Alliance, a collaborative of gender equality law centers working instates around the country. She lives in Leeds.