August 29, 2025

Effort underway to stop taxpayer funded abortions in Massachusetts

REGIONAL
By Carolee McGrath

A volunteer stands in front of a Planned Parenthood clinic in Boston, Massachusetts, June 28, 2014. (OSV News photo/Dominick Reuter, Reuters)

SPRINGFIELD – The Massachusetts Alliance to Stop Taxpayer Funded Abortion is seeking signatures for an initiative petition in attempt to remove abortion as a constitutional right. Close to 75,000 signatures are needed in the first step of the process to move the issue to a ballot question in 2028, amending the Massachusetts Constitution. In 1981, the Supreme Judicial Court in Massachusetts ruled that Massachusetts taxpayers should pay for abortions. The signatures will be collected from early September through Nov. 19.

“I think that the status quo is just not acceptable with the number of abortions being publicly funded. I think stirring the pot is just getting people activated on the issue if you don’t talk about it nothing is going to change,” said Thomas Harvey, a Massachusetts attorney and chairman of the Massachusetts Alliance to Stop Taxpayer Funded Abortions.

“It’s just an initial step. We have to remove the constitutional right barrier. Even if we had the votes legislature, we couldn’t stop taxpayer funded abortion because of the 1981 ruling,” he explained.

Harvey said because of the large number of signatures disqualified by the Secretary of State’s Office, he is hoping to collect at least 100,000 signatures.

“They are extremely particular on the sheets. If someone highlighted a name, it’s out. If there is a stray mark, the sheet is out,” he said.

In a letter to pro-life constituents, Harvey explained that this effort is separate from the bill recently passed by the U.S. Congress to defund Planned Parenthood. Because taxpayer funded abortion is considered a constitutional right in Massachusetts, abortions will continue to be paid for with public funds, regardless of any federal decisions.

“This proposed constitutional amendment has the potential to eventually strike a harmful blow to the abortion industry in Massachusetts. Over the past approximately 40 years, Planned Parenthood and its ilk have not considered the Massachusetts pro-life movement to be a serious threat to business as usual. But the taxpayer funding issue is their vulnerability. So, in my view, that is one of the areas where pro-life efforts should be concentrated,” Harvey wrote.

Harvey will conduct a ballot signature collection training at Our Lady of the Blessed Sacrament Parish Thursday, Sept. 11 at 6:30 p.m. The session will help to educate people on the correct way to collect signatures so they won’t be disqualified. Volunteers are needed throughout the state to help collect signatures.

For more information, go to stoptaxpayerabortion.org