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BOSTON, Massachusetts, December 3, 2020 (LifeSiteNews) – Pro-life activists in Boston are rallying to persuade legislators to defeat a radical pro-abortion measure which would allow for abortion up to birth and would permit abortion for minors without parental consent.  

Having failed to pass their sweeping pro-abortion policy agenda through the customary process in a bill called the ROE Act, the Democrats in the Massachusetts Legislature adopted a different strategy by attaching an amendment to the state budget. Amendment 759 in the state house and 180 in the state senate passed by large margins in both chambers last month (108—49 and 33—7, respectively). 

According to the Massachusetts Family Institute (MFI), the amendment allows the performance of abortion prior to 24 weeks for any reason, while, for all practical purposes, extending this permission up to the moment of birth.

Currently, Massachusetts law allows abortion after 24 weeks if the mother’s life is at risk. Under this new provision, that exception would be expanded “to preserve the patient’s physical or mental health,” a criteria which can be broadly interpreted to make almost any abortion legal.

But, according to MFI, the bill goes even further and would also allow “passive infanticide.” Instead of directing abortionists to “take all reasonable steps” to save a child who has survived a botched abortion, the new amendment “simply requires that there be life-saving equipment present, but doesn’t require that the physician actually USE it.”

Further, MFI explains that the bill at least lowers parental consent for a minor to obtain an abortion from the age of 18 to 16, or it entirely eliminates it altogether due to inconsistent language specifying both stipulations. Either way, the bill allows minors to obtain an abortion without the knowledge of a parent, to either a total or partial degree.

And finally, the measure would no longer require abortions procured prior to 24 weeks to be performed by a physician, but allows non-doctors such as physician assistants, nurse practitioners or nurse midwives to abort preborn babies as well.

 

Though he remains pro-abortion, Republican Governor Charlie Baker expressed last month his disapproval of the other party using the budget to advance policy objectives, along with his having misgivings about the aim to remove parental consent and change restrictions regarding late-term abortions.

For these and other reasons, pro-life advocates are praying he will exercise his line-item veto authority to strike the amendment with the deadly abortion language from the bill.

In addition, they are sponsoring a “Memorial of roses for the unborn” event to urge enough legislators who supported the abortion amendment, to reconsider their position and sustain the governor’s possible veto. The event’s webpage affirms that they are within reach, needing only five more votes to sustain such a veto.

 

This prayer rally will be held on Saturday, December 5th, upon the steps of the State House at 24 Beacon St., Boston.

The organizers request that those who attend, if possible, “bring red roses in memory of the babies who have already died and those whose lives will be taken if this amendment is passed.” Those who are unable to attend, can show support by donating roses here. At the time of this writing, 79 people had donated $5,370 to purchase roses for this effort. 

The flier explains, “Many roses are needed to represent the lives that have been and will be lost to abortion. Shock legislators with the action of the silent majority.”

The event will include a Rosary lead by Catherine Jenkins at 2:00 p.m., an address by Kathy Hill of Silent No More, and a Divine Mercy Chaplet at 3:00 p.m.

The center of the flyer highlights the group’s invocation, “Our Lady of Guadalupe, Mother of the Unborn, pray for us!”