By Calvin Freiburger in LifeSite News – August 12, 2026 Massachusetts Democrat Gov. Maura Healey signed a new law Monday eliminating the need for specific medical justifications for abortion past 24 weeks, establishing effectively unlimited abortion up to birth in the state. Under previous state law, an abortion may only be performed past 24 weeks if a physician deems it “necessary to preserve the life of the patient”; “necessary to preserve the patient’s physical or mental health”; “warranted because of a lethal fetal anomaly or diagnosis”; or “warranted because of a grave fetal diagnosis that indicates that the fetus is incompatible with sustained life outside of the uterus without extraordinary medical interventions.” Such exceptions, pro-lifers have long warned, give abortionists ample wiggle room to authorize late-term abortions under false pretenses. But H. 5595 would do away with even those conditions, replacing the language with “an abortion may be performed by a physician based upon the professional judgment of the physician.” It would also add language that “no medical review process shall override the professional judgment of a treating physician and a patient or the patient’s health care proxy to provide an abortion consistent with the new section.” The state’s radically pro-abortion governor signed the law in a ceremony Monday surrounded by women (some wearing white doctors’ coats) who clapped their hands in celebration. “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. 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,” Healey declared. “That should never happen in Massachusetts. This law continues our efforts to have the strongest abortion protections in the country because in Massachusetts, we believe health care decisions should be made between women and their doctors.” “Legalizing elective abortion up to birth on healthy mothers and healthy, pain-capable unborn children is not about protecting the doctor-patient relationship,” responded Myrna Maloney Flynn, president of Massachusetts Citizens for Life. “It is about abortionists normalizing the deaths of fully-developed infants and pressuring vulnerable women to permit their unborn children to die in heinous acts of violence. These abortions represent among the most severe human rights abuses permitted in only a few places around the world, including China and North Korea.” “Murderers,” lamented Catholic philosophy professor Edward Feser. “The Democratic Party is a death cult,” added the American Enterprise Institute’s Marc Thiessen. The ‘Catholic’ governor just signed to kill babies. Where are the local bishops?” asked another social media user, to which former congressional candidate John Hugo responded, “Our bishop needs to officially excommunicate her. Why is any ‘Catholic’ politician allowed to support infanticide without consequences?” Abortion defenders have long attempted to downplay late-term abortions as rare bordering on nonexistent while opposing any attempt to restrict them. But the facts show they are a very real problem. According to data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC) and pro-abortion Guttmacher Institute reviewed by the pro-life Charlotte Lozier Institute (CLI), while more than 90 percent of abortions occur in the first trimester, more than 50,000 abortions a year take place after 15 weeks (almost four months into pregnancy), and approximately 10,000 after 20 weeks (five months). To put these abortions in perspective, Institute for Family Studies demographer Lyman Stone writes, “Abortions after 32 weeks are a very small share of total abortions — perhaps 0.5%. Let’s say half of those are not due to unsurvivable conditions, so 0.25% of abortions are very late + could have survived if born.” That would come to just 2,500 third-trimester – which, while a very small number in isolation, would still “compose fully 1-in-10 homicides in the United States,” and the “second biggest cause of death among people under 18 (after congenital immaturity).” Furthermore, contrary to pro-abortion narratives, most of these abortions are not sought for extreme medical emergencies. A 2013 Guttmacher report admitted “data suggests that most women seeking later terminations are not doing so for reasons of fetal anomaly or life endangerment,” and notorious late-term abortionist Warren Hern’s own published data found that fetal abnormalities ranged from just a fifth to a third of his patients – and that the most common of those “abnormalities” was Down syndrome, a condition that is neither a death sentence nor even a guarantee of an unhappy life. Yet for years congressional Democrats have consistently voted against the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act, which would ban elective abortions after five months.