“I am deeply honored to be nominated by President Biden for ambassador to Ireland, especially given the President’s and my own Irish roots,” Cronin said in a White House statement, according to Boston.com. “If confirmed, I look forward to serving as ambassador and working with our partners in Ireland on both the challenges and opportunities ahead of us.”
Cronin differed from many Democrats in the Massachusetts legislature in that she endorsed Biden for president in the primary rather than U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Cambridge).
Cronin’s biggest legislative accomplishment may be passing the ROE Act via a budget amendment last year despite bipartisan opposition to it.
The bill legalized abortion after 24 weeks in cases where “an abortion is warranted because of a lethal fetal anomaly incompatible with sustained life outside the uterus.” State law previously allowed for abortion after 24 weeks “to preserve the patient’s physical or mental health.”
The bill, which Democratic state legislators enacted in December 2020 despite the veto of Governor Charlie Baker, a Republican, also lowered the age of those who need parental or judicial consent to obtain an abortion from 17 and younger to 15 and younger. It also eliminated language from then-existing Massachusetts law that required doctors to try to save the life of a baby born alive after an attempted abortion.
Section 12P. If an abortion is performed pursuant to section twelve M, the physician performing the abortion shall take all reasonable steps, both during and subsequent to the abortion, in keeping with good medical practice, consistent with the procedure being used, to preserve the life and health of the aborted child. Such steps shall include the presence of life-supporting equipment, as defined by the department of public health, in the room where the abortion is to be performed.
The Republic of Ireland was once one of the most socially conservative countries in the developed world. It legalized elective abortion in May 2018 via a national referendum.
As a young woman Cronin worked in the administration of the last anti-abortion governor of Massachusetts, Edward J. King, serving in Liaison and Constituent Services, according to the White House. King, a conservative Democrat, served as governor from 1979 to 1983.
Cronin was first elected to the Massachusetts House of Representatives in 2012.
If the U.S. Senate confirms Cronin to the post and she resigns as state representative, it would trigger a special election in the Democratic-leaning 11th Plymouth District. The district includes precincts 1-5 in the town of Easton as well as parts of the city of Brockton (ward 1 precincts A-D, ward 3 precinct D, and ward 7 precincts C-D).
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Massachusetts state Representative Claire Cronin (R-Easton) spoke against the born-alive amendment on Wednesday, December 16, 2020. 
