Around New England

New State Abortion Funds In Massachusetts To Pay For Chemical Abortions In Some Health Clinics

January 2, 2023

A nonprofit organization that runs health clinics for poor people in southeastern Massachusetts plans to use newly available state funds to offer chemical abortions.

Health Imperatives, which serves “low-income or vulnerable families,” is using $700,000 from the state to add chemical abortions at clinics in New Bedford, Brockton, Plymouth, Wareham, Hyannis, Martha’s Vineyard, and Nantucket, according to The Cape Cod Times.

Governor Charlie Baker’s administration last week announced $4.1 million in grants to 11 organizations “to improve access to reproductive health, including abortion care,” according to a statement released by the state Department of Public Health on Wednesday, December 28, 2022.

The Massachusetts state government has paid for abortions for poor women and girls who qualify for Medicaid since a court decision required it in 1981. But in 2022, the state legislature for the first time appropriated additional funds to pay for abortions. The fiscal year 2023 state budget (for the fiscal year that began July 1, 2022) includes $2 million to provide and promote abortion.

Separately, on November 10, 2022, Governor Baker signed into law an additional $3.76 spending bill that included $17.5 million to encourage abortion and contraception. That bill was largely fueled by the federal American Rescue Plan Act of 2021, which provided coronavirus-related stimulus funds to states.

That bill initially included $1 million for an “awareness campaign” targeting pro-life crisis pregnancy centers, but Baker vetoed that portion of the bill on November 10 while signing the lion’s share of the bill into law.

In a written statement dated December 28, a state official in the Baker administration is quoted as saying the new state funds for abortion will go not only to Massachusetts residents but also to out-of-state residents who come to Massachusetts seeking abortions.

“Funding provided by these awards will support the infrastructure and capacity of reproductive health providers throughout the Commonwealth to ensure that sexual and reproductive health services are accessible to all Massachusetts residents and other individuals who may come to our state to seek care,” said Margret Cooke, the Massachusetts public health commissioner, according to the written statement.

The state Department of Public Health last week identified 11 organizations as recipients of new state abortion funds:

Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center

Boston Medical Center

Cambridge Health Alliance

Health Imperatives

HealthQ (a “sexual health clinic” with offices in Lawrence, Haverhill, and Beverly)

Planned Parenthood League of Massachusetts

Tides for Reproductive Freedom and its sub-grantees (Abortion Rights Fund of Western Massachusetts, Eastern Massachusetts Abortion Fund, Jane Fund of Central Massachusetts)

Women’s Health Services (an abortion facility in Brookline)

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