Catholic group demands Massachusetts governor be excommunicated over abortion law
A leading Catholic advocacy group is calling on Massachusetts bishops to excommunicate Gov.Maura Healey after the Democrat signed legislation removing restrictions on late-term abortions, allowing for abortions up until birth.Healey, a Catholic, signed the "Prioritizing Patient Access to Care Act" on Aug.
10.The measure gives physicians greater judgment in determining whether to perform late-term abortions without facing legal penalties. Previously, Massachusetts permitted abortions after 24 weeks only if a physician determined it was necessary to preserve the mother’s physical or mental health, save her life, or in cases of fatal fetal diagnoses.
When the new law takes effect Nov.8, those statutory restrictions will be removed, aligning Massachusetts with states like Colorado, Maryland, and Oregon that have no gestational limits.The advocacy group CatholicVote argued that by enacting the law, Healey committed a grave sin and should be barred from the sacraments.LATE-TERM ABORTION TAKES FRONT SEAT AS BLUE STATE RUSHES TO EXPAND ACCESS BEFORE SESSION ENDSGovernor Maura Healey holds a press conference on May 8, 2026, with abortion advocates.
(Suzanne Kreiter/The Boston Globe via Getty Images)CatholicVote president Kelsey Reinhardt wrote an open letter to the Catholic Bishops of Massachusetts, asking them to clarify whether Governor Healey's actions incurred automatic excommunication under church law.Reinhardt pointed to canon law, which dictates that anyone who procures an abortion, or assists someone in procuring one, incurs an automatic (latae sententiae) excommunication."By the very fact of doing this — no one has to proclaim you excommunicated — you've done something so contrary to the faith that you've actually excommunicated yourself," Reinhardt told Fox News Digital in an interview."The question is whether the governor signing this law makes her an accomplice in the public expansion of abortion."Reinhardt, the mother to a child who was born at 35 wee...