State Representative Lipper-Garabedian Joins Massachusetts House to Pass Bill to Strengthen Access to Abortion Care
Bill updates state law governing abortion after 24 weeks of pregnancy, ensures patients can receive care in Massachusetts
BOSTON – Wednesday, July 22, 2026 – State Representative Kate Lipper-Garabedian (D-Melrose) joined the Massachusetts House of Representatives today to pass a bill updating state law governing abortions after 24 weeks of pregnancy, ensuring that physicians can provide medically necessary abortion care based on their professional medical judgment.
Dozens of patients annually are forced to travel out of state to obtain abortion care later in pregnancy because of existing legal restrictions, according to Reproductive Equity Now. This legislation helps ensure that patients can receive medical care in Massachusetts from their providers.
“This bill reaffirms that the Commonwealth protects individuals seeking care and their right to make informed health care decisions with their doctors,” said Representative Lipper-Garabedian. “Amid continuous attacks on reproductive rights from the federal government and other states, this legislation ensures that Massachusetts residents can receive necessary abortions here in the Commonwealth, eliminating the need to travel and leave their support systems at home. This legislation affirms the expertise and professional judgement of physicians to support their patients and provide care without hesitation and harmful obstacles.”
“This legislation is about ensuring that in Massachusetts, reproductive health care decisions are made exclusively by the patient and her doctor — unencumbered by a legal framework that, in practice, isn’t always capable of accounting for the complexity and uncertainty inherent to pregnancy-related health care,” said House Speaker Ronald J. Mariano (D-Quincy). “These reforms will ensure that Massachusetts remains steadfast in our commitment to protecting a woman’s right to choose. I want to thank Chair Michlewitz, Chair Day, Chair Barber, and Representative Sabadosa for working to uplift the voices of women who have endured unimaginable hardships during their pregnancies, as well as all my colleagues in the House for ensuring that Massachusetts remains a national leader in protecting access to reproductive health care.”
The bill passed today removes existing requirements that limit abortions at 24 weeks of pregnancy or later to specific medical circumstances, allowing licensed physicians to rely on their best medical judgment when caring for patients. Under current law, those circumstances must adhere to only four specific categories, which do not account for the full spectrum of medical conditions encountered by women and their doctors: protecting the patient's life or physical or mental health, or cases involving a lethal fetal anomaly or a grave fetal diagnosis.
Building on protections first enacted into law in 2022 and expanded in 2025, the bill prohibits third-party medical review processes from overriding medical treatment decisions made jointly by a patient, or their health care proxy, and their treating physician. The bill also permits treating physicians to perform these procedures in health care treatment centers in addition to hospitals, meeting the patients where they are seeking health care treatment.
The legislation passed the House of Representatives 119-33 and now goes to the Senate for consideration.
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