JULY 23, 2026

Dear Cambridge and Somerville Constituents —

Yesterday in the House of Representatives, I joined with my Cambridge and Somerville colleagues to pass a "An Act Prioritizing Patient Access to Care," whichexpands access to abortion after 24 weeks of pregnancy.

This will ensure that physicians can provide medically necessary abortion care based on their professional medical judgment. This is important because abortion is health care — and when a patient and her doctor are making a deeply personal decision about a complicated pregnancy, the law, the courts, and the politics of the issue should not get in the way.

At present, Massachusetts does have a set of exceptions that can allow for an abortion to be performed after 24 weeks. However, in practice, we've seen that there are significant limitations to this exception-based framework. This has led to life-threatening healthcare disparities — where some patients can afford to travel to Maryland or Colorado to obtain the care they need after 24 weeks, but others have no choice but to stay in Massachusetts at the risk of their own health and wellbeing.

Building on the Roe Act of 2020, which codified the right to abortion in Massachusetts, and the Shield Law protections of 2022 (that we expanded again in 2025), this bill also prohibits third-party medical review processes from overriding treatment decisions made by a patient, or their health care proxy, and their treating physician. The bill also permits treating physicians to perform these procedures in other health care treatment facilities in addition to just hospitals.

I am proud to be a co-sponsor of this bill, H.2370, which was filed by Reps. Christine Barber of Somerville and Lindsay Sabadosa of Northampton. After yesterday's vote, Rep. Barber joined me in my office for a conversation explaining why this legislation is so important — you can watch a video of our conversation on Instagram, Facebook, Bluesky, Threads, YouTube, and TikTok.

The bill passed the House of Representatives on a vote of 119-33, with most Democrats voting in favor and all Republicans voting against. It now goes to the state Senate, where a vote is expected as early as next week. 

For my part, I am proud that Massachusetts is the national leader on reproductive freedom and access to abortion — and no matter what happens in Washington, DC — I am determined to continue working with my colleagues on Beacon Hill and with our advocacy partners at Planned Parenthood and Reproductive Equity Now to keep it that way.

As always, please don't hesitate to reach out with any questions or concerns on this or any other matter.

Yours in service,

Mike