Massachusetts eliminated its cutoff for when someone can get an abortion, making it the tenth state — along with Washington, D.C. — to allow the procedure at any point in pregnancy.
“We believe that health care decisions should be made between women and families and their doctors, not politicians,” Gov. Maura Healey, a Democrat, said Monday at a bill-signing ceremony. “Abortion will remain safe, it will remain legal and it will remain accessible here in Massachusetts. That’s my commitment to you.”
Most abortions happen within the first trimester, and very few take place after 24 weeks, the previous limit for abortion in the Bay State. Those that do occur after that point often involve situations in which doctors discovered a fetal anomaly late in pregnancy.
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The fall of Roe v. Wade in 2022 and subsequent rise of abortion bans has also pushed more people to seek termination later in pregnancy than they otherwise might have. With abortion banned or very limited in many states, especially in the South, some people have traveled across multiple state lines for an abortion, which involves not only travel logistics, but finding the money to do it.
The Massachusetts law was championed by major medical groups, including the national Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine, the Massachusetts Medical Society, and the state’s chapter of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists.
The law also received support from Kate Dineen, an abortion rights activist whose son died in utero at 33 weeks. Dineen could not receive care for her pregnancy in Massachusetts, and instead traveled to Maryland for an abortion.
Dineen has spoken publicly about her experience on multiple occasions, and was a guest of Sen. Edward Markey, a Democrat, at President Joe Biden’s 2023 State of the Union address.
Anti-abortion activists have condemned the law and others like it. Vice President JD Vance, a staunch abortion opponent, has made a point of criticizing states that allow abortions in the second and third trimesters.
Prior to the overturn of Roe v. Wade, a handful of states legalized abortion with no gestational limit: Alaska, Colorado, Oregon, New Jersey, New Mexico, Maryland and Vermont, as well as Washington, D.C. Post-Roe, Michigan and Minnesota also eliminated their abortion cutoffs. But only a handful of practices across the country actually offer abortion after 24 weeks.
Massachusetts health providers have seen hundreds of out-of-state patients for abortions since the fall of Roe. Data from the Guttmacher Institute, which tracks abortion policy, found that, in 2025, 150 people traveled from Florida — where abortion after six weeks has been banned since 2024 — to Massachusetts for an abortion. It was the state with the second-most number of patients going to Massachusetts, after neighboring Rhode Island.
