Bishop William Byrne is urging Catholics to sign a petition to suspend and repeal a new Massachusetts law that allows abortion throughout pregnancy as the state’s bishops mark Respect Life Month by condemning the measure.
The law, Chapter 188, the Prioritizing Patient Access to Care Act, passed in the final hours of the legislative session in July and was signed by Gov. Maura Healey on Aug. 10. It is scheduled to take effect Nov. 8.
It removes all restrictions past 24 weeks and permits abortion throughout pregnancy for any reason, including after 24 weeks up to birth for healthy mothers and healthy, viable babies. It also allows killing babies in abortions in non-hospital settings.
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“The legalization of a late term abortion where you can have a baby that could survive outside the womb, killed even outside of a hospital setting, is a horrible undertaking in our state,” Byrne, bishop of the Diocese of Springfield, said. “So there is a petition that is being circulated to repeal this. It’s a long shot, but God likes long shots. We have to get behind it so we can do everything possible, but we also have to walk with moms in crisis.”
The state’s Catholic bishops — Archbishop Richard G. Henning of Boston, Byrne, Bishop Robert McManus of Worcester and Bishop Edgar da Cunha of Fall River — signed a joint letter calling the law a tragedy and urging witness, prayer and advocacy for unborn children and their mothers.
“This law is a tragedy, and the Catholic legislators who helped to enact it have caused grave scandal,” the bishops said. “The Prioritizing Patient Access to Care Act permits abortion throughout pregnancy for any reason, and it allows these grisly procedures — dangerous to mothers and cruel to their unborn children — to be performed in non-hospital settings.”
“Laws function as teachers,” they said. “This new law falsely teaches that human beings who are ill or inconvenient are not worthy of life; that motherhood can be incompatible with women’s freedom, well-being, and flourishing; and that no viable alternatives to abortion exist in the face of difficult diagnoses.”
The repeal drive was launched by Massachusetts Family Action and is co-sponsored by Massachusetts Citizens for Life. The diocesan report identified the petition effort as Repeal 188.
Under state referendum law, 37,289 certified signatures are required to place the question on the 2028 ballot. If organizers collect 49,716 certified signatures, the law would be suspended until voters decide in November 2028. Parishes in the Diocese of Springfield are holding petition drives after Mass.
“Before the ink dried on Governor Healey’s politicized signature, we started receiving messages from outraged residents across the state, people sickened that Healey had legalized abortion up to birth for healthy mothers and healthy, pain-capable infants,” said Myrna Maloney Flynn, president of Massachusetts Citizens for Life. “Every person who contacted us wanted us to ‘do something’ to restore protections for viable, fully formed babies.”
“We have not pursued a referendum after every abortion law passed in Massachusetts, but this law crosses a fundamentally different line,” Flynn said. “It endangers women by allowing hospitals to send them to Planned Parenthood clinics for complex, dangerous late-term abortions rather than providing that care within better-equipped hospital facilities. The law also removes protections for viable babies, effectively allowing unborn children who are capable of surviving outside the womb to be killed.”
Byrne also asked parishes and ministries to continue “Walking with Moms,” a U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops initiative for women facing an unplanned pregnancy. October is Respect Life Month.
