Overview
- Governor Maura Healey signed the Prioritizing Patient Access to Care Act on Monday, Aug. 10, 2026, immediately ending the state's statutory 24‑week cutoff for abortion.
- The law removes the previous list of specific post‑24‑week exceptions and instead allows abortions at any stage when a physician, in their professional judgment, deems it medically appropriate.
- Kaiser Family Foundation counts Massachusetts as the tenth U.S. state plus Washington, D.C., with no fixed gestational limit, joining states such as Colorado, New Jersey and Oregon.
- Healey said the change aims to stop patients from having to travel long distances and pay out of pocket for late‑term care and she criticized President Donald Trump and U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanch for seeking tighter federal limits.
- The move tightens clinician authority in Massachusetts and highlights growing interstate divergence on abortion rules, a shift that could affect where and how people obtain late‑term reproductive care and trigger legal and political disputes to watch next.