TAKE ACTION: The MA Senate must pass critical maternal health legislation

The clock is ticking. The current formal legislative session at the State House ends in less than two weeks. And there is a lot still pending.

Today, we’re asking you to take action in support of two bills of critical importance to women’s health:

  • A maternal health bill that passed the House and is awaiting action in the Senate
  • The prison moratorium bill which passed last session but is still in committee with the clock ticking

The MA Senate Must Act on Maternal Health

Massachusetts families deserve a better maternal health care system. We have waited long enough for greater access to midwifery care, out-of-hospital birth options including birth centers and home births, pregnancy loss leave, public health data collection, coverage for donor milk, and so many more important provisions in this bill. The Massachusetts House passed a comprehensive Maternal Health Bill unanimously on June 20. The Senate needs to take action now — and by July 31.

Can you email your state senator in support of long-overdue legislation to expand access to midwifery care and out-of-hospital birth options?

Tell the Ways & Means Committee: Pass the Prison Moratorium

Let’s be blunt: prisons and jails are among the least healthy places. Despite rhetoric around rehabilitation, they are routinely places of retribution where people are denied necessary care.

Two years ago, the MA Legislature passed a moratorium on new prison and jail construction, but it was blocked by Governor Charlie Baker’s veto.

The organizing hasn’t stopped. Earlier this session, we saw moving testimony from women in MCI-Framingham who were able to participate virtually in hearings and speak directly to committees in the Legislature about why MA doesn’t need a new women’s prison — but instead needs greater investment in supportive services.

The prison moratorium bill is currently sitting in the Ways & Means Committee, awaiting action. Use this guide from Families for Justice as Healing to call the committee and urge them to pass the prison moratorium.

Tomorrow: MA Senate to Vote on Climate Omnibus Bill, House to Vote on Maternal Health Bill

Happy Juneteenth! Today is a reminder of both our country’s original sin of slavery and the importance of continual work to undo systems of oppression, correct historic inequities, and deliver on the promise of liberty and justice for all.

Tomorrow at the State House, the MA Senate and MA House both have an opportunity to further this work. Read on for what you can do.

Email Your State Senator about Climate Justice

Tomorrow, the MA Senate will be voting on a climate omnibus bill (S.2829) that takes steps to reform energy permitting, decarbonize buildings, electrify transportation infrastructure, expand the state’s electric vehicle charging network, and among other steps.

We know that if we are to have a just transition to renewable energy, then we need to center the communities that have been most harmed by the climate crisis and pollution.

Join the Mass Power Forward coalition in calling on State Senators to co-sponsor key amendments that accelerate our transition away from fossil fuels and address the historic and present harms faced by BIPOC communities.

  • #116 Accurately Assessing Community Impacts (DiDomenico), which would strike a clause from the definition of cumulative impact analyses that would limit the analysis to only assessing the risks and exposures attributable to the proposed new pollution source (thus making it NOT a cumulative assessment).
  • #100 Improving Outdoor Air Quality (Jehlen), which would create a technical advisory committee for air quality, direct the Department of Environmental Protection to identify at least 8 pollution hot spots, install air monitors, and reduce the air pollution by 50% by 2030.
  • #14 Protecting the Commonwealth from Gas Expansion (Gomez), which would halt large gas infrastructure expansion projects from being approved by the Energy Facilities Siting Board (EFSB).
  • #15 Halting the Expansion of Large Gas Pipes (Gomez), which would stop the Department of Public Utilities (DPU) from approving gas companies to expand into new towns & cities not already served by gas.
  • #16 Protecting the Climate and Ratepayers from Gas Expansion (Gomez), which would halt both large gas infrastructure expansions approvals by the EFSB (Amendment 14) and gas territory expansions by the DPU (Amendment 15).

Check out the Mass Power Forward action guide for more information.

Email Your State Representative about Birthing Justice

Tomorrow, the House will be taking up a bill to address our urgent maternal health crisis and racial inequities (H.4773). The bill incorporates evidence-based solutions, including those that integrate midwives and birth centers into our healthcare system.

Join the Bay State Birth Coalition in advocating for key amendments to to ensure health equity and strengthen midwifery and birth center provisions in the bill:

  • #8 Equitable Reimbursement for Certified Nurse Midwives (Fluker Oakley)
  • #9 Low-risk Pregnancy Definition filed (Fluker Oakley)
  • #15 Promoting Equitable Birth Center Leadership (Cruz)

Moreover, urge your state representative to oppose amendment #20, which would introduce severe restrictions on individual birthing choice and impose blanket fixed prohibitions instead of allowing regulations to follow current, evidence-based best practices for maternal care.

Check out the Bay State Birth Coalition action page for more information.

Ensuring Birthing Justice in the Commonwealth

Tuesday, June 6, 2023

Chair Cyr, Chair Decker, and members of the Joint Committee on Public Health:

My name is Jonathan Cohn, and I’m the policy director of Progressive Massachusetts, a statewide, member-based grassroots advocacy organization fighting for a more equitable, just, sustainable, and democratic Commonwealth. 

We urge you to give a favorable report to S.1415, An Act relative to birthing justice in the Commonwealth, and H.2209/S.1457, An Act promoting access to midwifery care and out-of-hospital birth options.

Since the Dobbs decision last year, nearly 20 states have moved to ban or severely restrict access to abortion, with wide-reaching negative impacts on access to reproductive health care, especially for marginalized communities. Although Massachusetts has taken important strides in recent years to strengthen access to reproductive health care, which we greatly appreciate, our Commonwealth still sees severe inequalities in access to care. Indeed, Black women are twice as likely to die from pregnancy-related causes than white women. We have more work to do to break down barriers to the full spectrum of reproductive health care that still exist for Black, Indigenous, and other people of color.

An Act relative to birthing justice in the Commonwealth introduces a critical framework to improve maternal health outcomes and ensure people have the support, education, and access to resources to be empowered throughout their pregnancies. An Act promoting access to midwifery care and out-of-hospital birth options, standalone legislation which is also a core provision of the birthing justice bill, creates a pathway to licensure for Certified Professional Midwives, the key midwifery workforce trained in out-of-hospital births.

These bills advance key recommendations from the Special Commission on Racial Inequities in Maternal Health. When the Legislature creates commissions to investigate policy areas, it is incumbent upon the Legislature to listen to the recommendations. Commissions take time and work from countless legislators, administrators, staff, and outside experts, and the recommendations are the result of such underappreciated work.

By embracing those recommendations, Massachusetts can ensure all pregnant people—regardless of race—have the autonomy, support, and adequate birth options to feel empowered throughout their pregnancies.

Sincerely, 

Jonathan Cohn

Policy Director

Progressive Massachusetts 

Let’s really value mothers on Mother’s Day

Happy Mother’s Day!

What would our Legislature be doing if it truly valued the work of mothers (and all parents)?

They would be strengthening our child care infrastructure with the Common Start bills so that all parents can access affordable child care.

They would be requiring health insurance plans to cover all pregnancy care without any kind of cost-sharing.

They would be addressing the stark racial disparities in maternal health outcomes in our Commonwealth.

They would be pausing the expansion of prison and jail construction because a new women’s prison would only continue cycles of family separation and trauma.

Can you write to your legislators about the importance of passing these policies this session?

Donate to #FreeBlackMamas National Bail Out

Our carceral system separates families and destabilizes community. We all have a role to play in changing the system.

Each year, the National Bail Out, a Black-led and Black-centered collective of abolitionist organizers, lawyers, and activists building a community-based movement to end systems of pretrial detention and ultimately mass incarceration, coordinates the Mama’s Day Bail Outs, where they bail out as many Black mothers and caregivers as they can so they can spend Mother’s Day with their families. Can you make a donation to their work in honor of Mother’s Day?

Thank you for all that you do to make Massachusetts a place where everyone can thrive.

In solidarity,

Melanie O’Malley
Outreach and Operations Director

“A right to reproductive health care is not a real right unless every individual is able to access that care”

May 2, 2023

Rep. James M. Murphy, Co-Chair Senator Paul Feeney, Co-Chair 

Joint Committee on Financial Services Joint Committee on Financial Services

Massachusetts State House, Room 254 Massachusetts State House, Room 

Boston, MA 02133 Boston, MA 02133

Dear Chairs Murphy, Feeney, and members of the Joint Committee on Financial Services:

We, the undersigned organizations committed to advancing reproductive freedom, equity, and justice in the Commonwealth, write today in support of H.1137 filed by Representatives Sabadosa and Balser and S.646 filed by Senator Friedman. 

Massachusetts law, as currently written, requires insurers to offer coverage for childbirth and treatment of miscarriages, but permits cost sharing. For too many mothers and families navigating high deductible plans and increased out-of-pocket spending, the burden of this cost sharing results in long-term financial struggles.

Under this legislation, all Massachusetts-regulated health insurance plans would be required to cover the full spectrum of pregnancy-related care without any cost-sharing, ensuring that Bay Staters are not saddled with insurmountable debt post-pregnancy and enabling them to have greater control over their lives and financial futures. We are grateful to the Legislature for its bold action to ensure coverage without cost-sharing for all abortion and abortion-related care, a key provision of Chapter 127 of the Acts of 2022. Now, we must go further to break down financial barriers to all pregnancy-related care. 

A right to reproductive health care — including care for all pregnancies, abortion, and miscarriage — is not a real right unless every individual is able to access that care, free from cost barriers. Being a new parent is tough enough. The last thing someone adjusting to life with a newborn needs to worry about is how they’re going to pay for the care they just received. 


According to the Massachusetts Center for Health Information and Analysis’ (CHIA) 2021 Massachusetts Health Insurance Survey, more than 1.7 million people in Massachusetts are on high deductible health plans. That’s 1.7 million people…

  • Who may never be able to get out of debt once they start a family;
  • Who could be forced to meet their deductible twice if the nine months of their pregnancy falls across two insurance plan years;
  • Who may be forced to forgo prenatal or postpartum care because of costs;
  • Who may delay family planning because they are too concerned about making ends meet; or most cruelly,
  • Who would be sent a hefty bill days after suffering the devastating loss of  miscarriage. 

The futures of people seeking pregnancy care should not be dictated by deductibles. 

This is an issue of gender and racial equity. Massachusetts is already combatting an epidemic of racial inequities in maternal health. Black women in our state are twice as likely as white women to die from pregnancy-related complications, and financial barriers to care are compounding these poor health outcomes. Forty percent of mothers have reported delaying prenatal care because they lack the money or insurance to cover the visits. Newborns of mothers who do not receive prenatal care are three times more likely to have a low birth weight and five times more likely to die than children born to mothers who receive prenatal care. We must reimagine our health care system and health care spending to center and support the needs of birthing people, families, and Black and Brown communities by making all pregnancy care more accessible. 

Based on CHIA’s Mandated Benefit Review of this legislation, we can make high-quality pregnancy-related care accessible to all Bay Staters for only an extra $2.09 per month on our monthly health insurance premiums—less than a cup of coffee. We don’t have to imagine a Massachusetts where everyone has access to the pregnancy care they need to safely give birth and raise a family; where fewer of our loved ones die from pregnancy-related care; and where no one has to go into debt to start a family. All we have to do to make this our reality is pay an extra $25 a year on our health insurance premiums.

Every Bay Stater must have access to the full spectrum of pregnancy-related care so we all can decide if, when, and how to have a family or raise children. We can ensure that our friends, families, loved ones, children, and children’s children would be safer, happier, and healthier, because pregnancy-related care would be so much more accessible to them.

Thank you for the opportunity to submit our testimony, and we again urge you to give H.1137 and S.646 a favorable report.

Respectfully,

Rebecca Hart Holder, President, Reproductive Equity Now

Carol Rose, Executive Director, ACLU of Massachusetts

Nate Horwitz-Willis, Executive Director, Planned Parenthood Advocacy Fund of Massachusetts

Luu Ireland, MD, MPH, Chair, Massachusetts Section of the American College of Obstetricians and 

Gynecologists

Jonathan Cohn, Policy Director, Progressive Massachusetts

Jeremy Burton, Chief Executive Officer, Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Boston

House and Senate Strengthen Protections for Abortion Care in Mass

Earlier today, the MA House and Senate passed a comprehensive bill to strengthen protections for abortion care and gender-affirming care (H.5090).

According to the summary from the Beyond ROE Coalition, the bill contains the following important measures:

  1. Critical protections for Bay Staters who provide or help someone access reproductive health care and gender-affirming care;
  2. A requirement that insurance cover abortion and abortion-related care. The bill also ensures coverage is affordable—and not subject to cost sharing—for low-income individuals;
  3. A requirement that Massachusetts public colleges and universities provide medication abortion at campus health centers;
  4. A statewide standing order for both prescription and over-the-counter emergency contraception, making no-cost insurance coverage possible for all forms of emergency contraception without delay, and a statutory fix to ensure over-the-counter emergency contraception can be sold in vending machines;
  5. A confidential address program for reproductive health care and gender-affirming care providers who too often face threats and violence for providing health care; and
  6. Language to clarify the ROE Act and ensure pregnant people are not forced to leave Massachusetts for abortion care later in pregnancy.

The bill passed the Senate 39 to 1, with only Republican senator Ryan Fattman voting NO.

The House voted was 137 to 16, with 5 Democrats and 11 Republicans voting no.

Roll Call #236

Strengthening Reproductive Rights Here at Home

July 21, 2022

Chair Michlewitz and Vice Chair Friedman,

Thank you for taking swift action in support of reproductive justice after the Supreme Court’s recent shameful and misguided ruling in Dobbs. When rights are under attack on the national level, it is important for Massachusetts to send a clear message that we will not only protect but also strengthen rights here at home—as well as serve as a model to other states.

Progressive Massachusetts would like to emphasize the importance of several provisions in S.3003 and H.4954.

Provider Protections: S.3003 and H.4954 will both establish critical protections for those in Massachusetts who provide or help someone access reproductive health care and gender-affirming care. These provisions state unequivocally that access to reproductive health care and gender-affirming care are rights secured by the constitution and laws of the Commonwealth. This language takes steps to protect defendants from abusive litigation based on such care, ensures that officials in the Commonwealth will not voluntarily facilitate investigations or lawsuits into such care, and offers protections to providers who may face impacts on their professional license or medical malpractice insurance premiums as repercussions of abusive litigation.

Medication Abortion: Thousands of college students in Massachusetts currently live in “access deserts” where the nearest abortion provider is hours away via public transit, if accessible at all. Language adopted by an amendment from Sen. Lewis to S.3003 will ensure that public college students can access medication abortion in the early stage of pregnancy at the locations where they already receive other reproductive health care services—at their campus health center. We wouldn’t accept having to travel over four hours for a dentist appointment. Abortion care shouldn’t be any different. 

Delivering on the Promise of the ROE Act: We must do everything we can to ensure pregnant patients can access compassionate care in our Commonwealth. In a post-Roe reality, it is simply not safe for a patient at any stage of pregnancy to have to travel out of state to access an abortion provider. To this end, we urge you to realize the full intent of the ROE Act by clarifying the statutory framework for abortion care after 24 weeks to ensure no one is forced to travel out of state for care. 

Thank you for your work on this important issue.

Sincerely,

Jonathan Cohn

Policy Director

Progressive Massachusetts

MA House Votes 136 to 17 to Strengthen Reproductive Rights

On Wednesday, the MA House voted 136 to 17 to pass H.4930: An Act expanding protections for reproductive rights, which would, among other steps,

  • Declare that access to both reproductive healthcare and gender-affirming care are a constitutional or legal right
  • Do everything in the state’s power to shield providers and their patients from out-of-state legal action
  • Prohibit licensing boards from disciplining professionals for providing legally-protected care care
  • Bar police from providing discretionary assistance to aid in hostile investigations or litigation
  • Prohibit the Governor from extraditing someone to another state to face charges for providing care that is lawful in Massachusetts
  • Boost access to emergency contraception
  • Require insurers to cover abortion and related services without imposing deductibles, co-pays, or cost-sharing
  • Close a perceived loophole in the ROE Act to ensure access to abortion care in MA after 24 weeks in cases of a “severe” fetal anomaly

The Fight for Reproductive Justice Isn’t Over

We’ve seen it coming for months (years, even), but it was still a gut punch to see the Supreme Court vote 6-3 today to overturn Roe vs. Wade, ending protections for legal abortion in the United States and taking our country back decades.

Here in Massachusetts, abortion is still legal, thanks to strong laws we have on the books (a thank-you especially to everyone who fought for the ROE Act two years ago).

But barriers to care—including exorbitant costs, complicated insurance coverage, and under-resourced providers—still exist, especially for low-income communities, communities of color, and immigrant communities.

And Massachusetts can do more for those who might need to leave other states to obtain abortion access. The Senate budget included strong language to protect reproductive health care providers who serve out-of-state residents, and it’s vital that that stay in.

Our allies at the Mass Beyond Roe Coalition (spearheaded by the ACLU, Planned Parenthood, and Reproductive Equity Now) laid out a comprehensive agenda for reproductive justice. You can read about it — and get ready to advocate for it — here: https://massbeyondroe.com/.

As abortion access has always been most difficult for those with the least resources, please consider donating to one of the Commonwealth’s abortion funds:

Eastern Mass Abortion Fund: https://emafund.org/

Abortion Rights Fund of Western Massachusetts: https://arfwm.org/

The Jane Fund: https://www.janefund.org/

News Roundup — December 15, 2021

“Michelle Wu: Cities Must Lead for the Green New Deal,” The Nation

“Action at the city level is what will make national momentum possible on our most urgent issues, and this is the level of government where we are closest to people, where we can innovate and move quickly. Most importantly, this is the level of government where we uniquely are in the position to earn the trust of our communities.”


“It’s like a slow war, like a slow burn. Like a slow, quiet form of torture,” The Appeal

“Solitary confinement is a punishment that correctional officers wield freely, and its harms are catastrophic. The practice — confinement in a cell for up to 24 hours a day — can lead to psychosis, self-mutilation, and suicide. A study of people incarcerated in North Carolina found that those subjected to solitary were almost 80 percent more likely to die by suicide within a year after their release than those not placed in solitary.”


“Will the Legislature let pandemic mail-in and early voting reforms expire?,” WBUR

“Many municipalities benefited from these reforms, but still, they’re set to expire Wednesday….There was talk of extending them while the House and Senate hashed out a more permanent solution. But with the legislature not in formal session, it appears highly unlikely they will act to do so in time.”


“Edwards beats D’Ambrosio in special election primary for state Senate,” CommonWealth

“While the race largely turned into a turf battle pitting D’Ambrosio’s solid base of support in Revere against Edwards’s strength in Boston and Cambridge, it was also a referendum on whether the district would embrace the progressive wave has that sent Wu, Pressley, and other political change agents into office in recent years or stick to a more moderate Democratic lane.”


“Primary win all but ensures progressive Boston City Councilor Lydia Edwards a State Senate seat,” WGBH

“What I’ve been consistent about is talking about how as a senator, you can take a regional approach, which is necessary to deal with housing, to deal with transportation, to deal with environmental justice, to deal with education … dealing with the opioid crisis, there is no one city or town that can do it alone.”


“Earmark process in ARPA bill undermines racial equity goals,” CommonWealth

“But those diversity and equity goals collided with lawmakers’ penchant for using budget negotiations to fund pet projects in their districts. The result: The bulk of arts funding in the huge spending bill is tied up in local earmarks, only a small percentage of which are geared toward organizations led by or primarily serving people of color.”


“Mass. falling behind on marijuana equity mandate,” CommonWealth

“Let’s be real about this: communities all over this state still experience the painful impacts of the War on Drugs today. The families that have been torn apart by over-policing and over-enforcement should be the first to benefit now that marijuana is legal. Massachusetts knows what it takes to make sure equity materializes, and now is the time to carry out its promise by investing in those who deserve to participate in this industry.”


“California Plans To Be Abortion Sanctuary If Roe Overturned,” HuffPost

“The report recommends funding — including public spending — to support patients seeking abortion for travel expenses such as gas, lodging, transportation and child care. It asks lawmakers to reimburse abortion providers for services to those who can’t afford to pay — including those who travel to California from other states whose income is low enough that they would qualify for state-funded abortions under Medicaid if they lived there.”