Politicians, activists press abortion legislation

By NOOR ADATIA

For the Gazette

BOSTON — Local politicians, including Easthampton Mayor Nicole LaChapelle, were joined by abortion advocacy groups during a Statehouse rally Tuesday morning in support of legislation providing more reproductive freedoms to Massachusetts residents.

They brought attention to the ROE Act — a piece of legislation introduced by Sen. Harriette Chandler, D-Worcester, that has been up for debate in Beacon Hill for several months. The act would expand abortion access to pregnant women, notably allowing teenagers to seek reproductive care without consent from their parents.

LaChapelle discussed the limited access western Massachusetts residents have to an abortion clinic, often traveling more than 90 miles to seek reproductive health care.

“The clinics that provide this advice and services are important to women’s emotional, economic, and basic dignity and rights,” LaChapelle told the gathering of about 50 people. While there are medical offices in the area, Easthampton, a city of 16,000 people, lacks a functioning health care clinic.

She said the abortion debate is about more than just one health care choice.

“This is about something a woman deserves that will affect the rest of her life if denied,” she said.

The ROE Act would also permit

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clinicians to administer abortions later in pregnancy and, in special medical cases, after 24 weeks.

LaChapelle said in an interview that she thinks it’s ridiculous that her own 16-year-old daughter has to fight for her reproductive rights.

“The concern about women under the age of 18 accessing these services is a little incredible to me,” she said.

She explained that her daughter’s recent visit to the gynecologist was a private conversation between her and her health care provider. Abortion rights, she said, are the same kind of conversation.

Boston Mayor Marty Walsh also addressed the group that included reporters and abortion rights activists. Dozens of volunteers from organizations like Planned Parenthood and NARAL Pro-Choice stood on the steps behind him and other politicians, holding up signs that read “abortion is health care.”

Walsh said that he and his colleagues were present because Massachusetts has always been a leader in women’s reproductive health and reproductive rights. “We’re going to fight and fight for all people’s rights here in Massachusetts,” he said. “We support the ROE Act, and it’s important to move forward here. We’re not going to let us go backward.”

Walsh also said that state lawmakers refuse to let members of the Trump administration intimidate them in their efforts to roll back reproductive freedoms granted to women from Roe v. Wade.

He noted he stood in solidarity with mayors from other cities, including Lawrence and Framingham — many of whom had driven far to speak at the gathering.

Cambridge resident Kelley Huber, 26, attended the rally and was one of the Planned Parenthood volunteers standing on the steps behind the politicians speaking.

Huber, a second-year law student at Suffolk University, said she is particularly in favor of the provision that eliminates the judicial bypass. This procedure gives judges the power to grant abortion access to minors they deem mature, she explained.

“A teenager having to prove their maturity to do what’s best for them in front of a judge is not only scary, but also it opens the door for outcomes that are outside what the teenager might want,” Huber said.

Removing this bypass, she said, “will allow minors to have some autonomy and agency with their bodies.”

Huber also said she was pleased to see mayors from all across the state support the opinions of their constituents at the rally.

“We are representing so many different pockets of the commonwealth … so many different communities when you have a variety of mayors show up like this” she said. “It’s imperative.”

While the ROE Act has been in committee since June, LaChapelle said she does not necessarily view this measure as stalled, and that creating a good piece of legislation that will make a difference is most important.

“The fact that Roe on a national level is so precarious — it boggles my mind,” she said. “I’m going to make sure that my constituents in Easthampton have the full continuum of rights to health care they deser ve.”

Noor Adatia writes for the Gazette from the Boston University Statehouse Program.

NICOLE LaCHAPELLE