BOSTON (WHDH) - Mayors from across the Bay State gathered Tuesday at the State House in support of a bill that would expand access to abortion.
Boston Mayor Martin J. Walsh, along with more than a dozen other mayors, declared their support for the ROE Act.
“We won’t be intimidated by the Trump administration,” Walsh said. “We won’t be intimidated by wanting to roll back ROE vs. WADE.”
The legislature is designed to remove any obstacle that would hinder a woman from seeking an abortion.
“This is an opportunity in consultation with doctors to get appropriate healthcare that often times saves women’s lives,” Framingham Mayor Yvonne Spice said.
With the abortion debate growing nationwide, local mayors want to make sure abortion stays safe, legal, accessible, and affordable for everyone in the Commonwealth.
“I think there’s language in the law that makes it seem like this is an outlaw process even though it’s legal,” Lawrence Mayor Dan Rivera said. “I don’t think you can leave any stone unturned in this environment when the national Republican agenda is to repeal rights across the board.”
The ROE Act was introduced on Beacon Hill earlier this year.
If passed, the bill would build safeguards for young people seeking abortion care and ensure access to an abortion after 24 weeks of pregnancy in cases of fatal fetal diagnosis. It would also reform certain definitions and restrictions.
“We should be moving forward giving more rights to people, we shouldn’t be taking right away from people, we shouldn’t be taking rights away from women,” Walsh said.
Critics have called the ROE Act “too extreme.”
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