Around New England

Maura Healey Says Her Mother Goes To Daily Mass

October 13, 2022

Maura Healey referred to her mother’s church-going habits while answering a question about abortion Wednesday night.

Healey, the Democratic nominee for governor of Massachusetts, got a question during a debate with GOP nominee Geoff Diehl on whether she would support efforts to use public money to pay for abortions for women from states where abortion is illegal. (The discussion begins at 33:35 of the video of the debate on Wednesday, October 12 published by NBC Boston.)

Healey didn’t answer the question directly. But she sounded bullish on the idea, noting that some women may be coming to Massachusetts to get an abortion.

“They’re not able to access abortion in their states. And we as a state need to be prepared for that. And as governor, I will work with our public health officials, and I will work to make sure we’re doing just that,” Healey said.

Diehl brought up the ROE Act, an abortion expansion bill that the state legislature enacted in December 2020 over Governor Charlie Baker’s veto. The bill lowered the age when a pregnant girl needs the permission of a parent or a judge in order to get an abortion, from 17 previously to 15 now. It also removed a provision in state law that required doctors to try to save the life of a baby born alive after an attempted abortion.

Diehl said:

She keeps talking about trying to criminalize abortions. Actually, what I wanted to do is protect those innocent lives who were born from a failed abortion to get medical attention.

What removal of 12P of Section 112 does, is it makes it so that doctors don’t have to do that. That’s infanticide, in my opinion. And that, to me, is criminal.

But, again, the legislature overrode that. My job as governor is to protect women’s health care choices, and that’s what I’m going to do.

Healey did not directly rebut Diehl’s claim, but she dismissed it as “insulting” – while throwing in a reference to her mother’s religious practices.

Healey said:

You know, my mom goes to Mass every morning. She’s also a school nurse and a health educator.

And, I’ll tell you, that, I find a lot of that rhetoric insulting. It’s from the playbook of the anti-choice movement. And it’s insulting to any woman who has had to face an incredibly difficult decision, health decision, when it comes to a pregnancy.

Diehl said he is pro-life partly because of his own circumstances, but that he wouldn’t impose his views on state government against laws that the legislature has enacted.

Diehl said:

When I was born, my parents weren’t married. And they made a choice at the time. Roe v. Wade was not the law. And so they had me. So that shapes my view on abortion. Of course.

But again, my personal view on abortion is not what I do as governor. My job is to work within the boundaries of the legislature, and the laws that they’ve set. Sometimes you need to set your own personal opinions aside for the good of the state.

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