In response to fears of Roe v. Wade being overturned, Massachusetts state lawmakers have passed a 'NASTY Women Act’ that will repeal a 173-year-old law banning abortion in the state.
“I think people are beginning to realize these are strange times we live in,” said Massachusetts State Senate President Harriette Chandler.
“Nothing is impossible, and we’ve got to have a ‘plan B.’ If these laws are enforced, what do we do? We’re not willing to sit back and say, ‘Well, it’s not going to happen here.’ The word for that is denial.”
Although abortion is legal in the United States, Chandler introduced the NASTY Women Act (Negating Archaic Statutes Targeting Young Women bill) in January in order to prevent the state from reinforcing the law in the event that Roe v. Wade is overturned.
Massachusetts governor Charlie Baker (R-MA) said he plans to sign the bill into law.
“We will sign that,” he told reporters Monday.
“There are many folks in the women’s health community that were particularly concerned about this. The lieutenant governor and I and other folks on our team discussed it, and we do plan to sign it.”
In light of President Trump’s nomination of Judge Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court of the United States, critics are concerned that Roe v. Wade is coming to an end.
“The changing dynamics of the Supreme Court is a real and legitimate concern,” said Claire Cronin, House chair of the Joint Committee on the Judiciary in Massachusetts.
“We have both a president and a vice president who have expressed an intent to overturn Roe v. Wade, and we take them at their word.”
However, some evangelical leaders say that simply overturning Roe v. Wade at the Supreme Court level would not end abortion entirely.
“What people don’t understand is that if you overturn Roe v. Wade, all that does is give the states the right to decide whether abortion is legal or illegal,” said Rev. Jerry Falwell Jr.
“My guess is that there’d probably be less than 20 states that would make abortion illegal if given that right. In the 70s, I don’t know how many states had abortion illegal before Roe v. Wade, but it won’t be near as many this time.”
Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) wrote Tuesday that Judge Brett Kavanaugh’s “public record demonstrates hostility towards contraception and abortion,” and that if he is confirmed to the SCOTUS, “he will work to overturn Roe.”
“President Trump’s hostility to women is no secret, and his selection of Judge Kavanaugh to join the Court is just the most recent in his long line of attacks on reproductive freedom. But this attack is particularly dangerous because as a Supreme Court Justice, Judge Kavanaugh would be able to affect policy for a lot longer than a four-year Presidential term.”
“America can’t go back to an era of back-alley abortions and can’t move into a future where reproductive rights are restricted,” the senator warned.
“It’s time for Americans to raise their voices, flood the halls of the Senate, work the phone lines, and tell the President and the Senate: no to Judge Kavanaugh.”