Following the State Legislature’s approval of the emergency contraception bill, lawmakers joined the attorney general and the Massachusetts Coalition for Choice to celebrate the right to choose at the State House on Tuesday.
The emergency contraception bill will make the Plan B pill available over the counter and require hospitals to offer the drug to rape victims in emergency rooms.
The bill originally passed overwhelmingly in the Massachusetts Senate and House of Representatives, but was vetoed by Gov. Mitt Romney on July 26. Legislators overrode the veto on Sept. 15.
The Massachusetts Coalition for Choice is composed of a diverse set of organizations, including the American Civil Liberties Union and the Planned Parenthood League of Massachusetts.
Most people attending the lobby day said they were celebrating the bill’s success. A number of legislators who played important roles in the signing of the emergency contraception bill also attended the event. Attorney General Thomas Reilly, who has announced a bid for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination in 2006, joined in the celebration.
“[A woman’s decision to have an abortion] is a personal decision that is too fundamental and profound to be made by the government,” Reilly said.
Reilly noted other successes of the pro-choice movement in Massachusetts, notably a “buffer-zone law” for the protection of clinics providing abortion services. He also touted his personal efforts to protect a woman’s right to choose and said he would uphold these rights if he is elected governor.
Massachusetts’ success in protecting the right to choose was echoed by other speakers. Dianne Luby, president of the Planned Parenthood League of Massachusetts, said the pro-choice effort in Massachusetts had attained results that “[her] colleagues in other states can’t even think about.”
Luby said she hoped increasing the availability of emergency contraception would lower the abortion rate.
“In [the time that] I have been working with Planned Parenthood, I have encountered a decrease in the number of abortions,” she said. “I can only hope that this is as a result of increased access to emergency contraceptives.”
Deval Patrick, another Democratic gubernatorial hopeful, was also present at the rally, but did not speak. His supporters distributed flyers before the event.
The lobby day also focused on the next goal of the Massachusetts Coalition for Choice: approving a health education bill that would make comprehensive health education a part of the public school curriculum.
The speakers advocating comprehensive health education included two high school students.
“I can’t think of any more important thing for students to learn than how to be safe and smart with themselves,” said Sarah Leonard, a local high school senior. “An informed student is a safer student.”
The Massachusetts Joint Committee on Education is currently reviewing the health education bill.
This is an account occasionally used by the Daily Free Press editors to post archived posts from previous iterations of the site or otherwise for special circumstance publications. See authorship info on the byline at the top of the page.
