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Planned Parenthood Applauds Senate Taking a Stand for Women’s Rights and Freedom

For Immediate Release: Jan. 25, 2018 (Updated: Jan. 25, 2018, 8:55 p.m.)


BOSTON—The Planned Parenthood Advocacy Fund of Massachusetts (PPAF) applauds the Massachusetts Senate’s passage of An Act Negating Archaic Statutes Targeting Young Women (S. 2260), a bill repealing archaic laws enacted to criminalize abortion and contraception and make reproductive health services inaccessible.

These outdated laws have been rendered unconstitutional and largely unenforceable, but have never been removed from state law. The laws include a ban on abortion that criminalizes those who seek or provide abortion care; a medically unnecessary requirement that abortions be performed in a hospital after the twelfth week of pregnancy; a ban on distributing information about accessing abortion or contraception; and a prohibition on unmarried people accessing contraception.

Statement from Dr. Jennifer Childs-Roshak, president and CEO of the Planned Parenthood Advocacy Fund of Massachusetts:

The Senate’s repeal of these unnecessary and harmful laws is a meaningful victory in our fight to protect reproductive rights and expand access to health care. These archaic laws were passed at times in history when women were second class citizens, when women had little to no economic freedom, and when their husbands or the state governed their decisions, including decisions about their own bodies. It’s past time we scrub these harmful laws off our books.

Every woman in this state and this country has the right to access the full range of reproductive health care services and make decisions about their health without medically unnecessary barriers. These unconstitutional laws were designed with the sole purpose of restricting access to health care and women’s rights. As we continue to see in other states how attacks on reproductive rights put women’s health at risk, Massachusetts can set itself apart by protecting women’s reproductive health and rights.

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The Planned Parenthood Advocacy Fund of Massachusetts (PPAF) is the advocacy and political arm of the Planned Parenthood League of Massachusetts (PPLM). Formed in 1984, PPAF believes that working within the political process is critical to advancing PPLM’s mission to increase access to sexual and reproductive health services and comprehensive sexuality education for women, men, and families across Massachusetts. For more information, visit www.pplmvotes.org.

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