時事通訊

We are living in a moment when voting and reproductive rights are under acute threat in America, but thankfully, Massachusetts has stepped forward to defend them. I’m immensely proud to have helped lead our recent efforts to protect these fundamental rights. 

This session I was the Senate sponsor of the VOTES Act, and I was a member of the conference committee that negotiated its final passage. This important law makes mail-in voting and extended early voting permanent. Both options were put in place on an emergency basis during the pandemic, and they proved to be highly popular among Massachusetts voters. 

I also served on the conference committee that negotiated Massachusetts’ response to the overturning of Roe v. Wade. The law we passed a few weeks ago protects the Commonwealth’s reproductive health care providers and patients to the maximum extent possible, and it clarifies that women may receive an abortion after 24 weeks when they receive a grave diagnosis about the fetus’ ability to survive after birth. 

Whatever happens at the federal level or in other states, here in Massachusetts we will always do whatever we can to protect the fundamental rights to vote, to privacy and autonomy, and to reproductive health care.