Healey’s office invokes her ‘proud Catholic’ identity in defending abortion law amid calls for her excommunication

In a statement defending her decision to sign radically pro-abortion legislation into law Aug. 10, a spokesperson for Democratic Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey called Healey “a proud Catholic” as context for her support of the bill, amid mounting criticism from Catholics who say her support for the law could carry canonical consequences.

The law Healey signed, H.B. 5595, takes effect Nov. 8. Previously, Massachusetts law allowed abortions at or after 24 weeks in specified circumstances involving the patient’s life or physical or mental health, or certain serious fetal diagnoses. The new law removes those specified conditions and states instead: “An abortion may be performed by a physician based upon the professional judgment of the physician.” 

Many pro-lifers, Catholics, and others have expressed outrage at the legislation which effectively legalizes abortion up to the moment of birth. As Zeale News has previously reported, CatholicVote CEO Kelsey Reinhardt has been among those calling on the Catholic bishops of Massachusetts to clarify whether the governor has excommunicated herself. 

Amid the outcry, the Boston Herald reported Aug. 15 that a governor’s spokesperson told the newspaper that Healey is a “governor for all people of all faiths.”

“As a proud Catholic, she believes everyone is deserving of kindness and empathy, especially in their time of need,” the spokesperson said. “She believes that those women and families should have been able to get the care they needed here in Massachusetts, and it was unfair to force them to travel to other states.”

Reinhardt responded to the statement in an Aug. 16 post on X, reiterating her earlier call for the bishops to provide clarity. 

“@MassGov is now claiming that as a ‘proud Catholic’ she can justify this law and that ‘everyone is deserving of kindness and empathy’…everyone except the babies that will be killed well past viability,” Reinhardt wrote. “She also refers to abortion as ‘care’. This is tripling down on a position explicitly condemned by the Catholic faith.”

“I once again invite the Bishops of Massachusetts to ratify her position outside the Church by confirming her excommunication,” Reinhardt said.

In a follow-up X post, Reinhardt reiterated, “Once again, this is a departure from the Mario Cuomo status quo that governed that last 60 years. She is not even personally opposed to abortion. She thinks abortion is care, and she wants to claim her faith and the virtues of kindness and empathy qualify her to pass the most extreme legislation to murder babies that could be born today.”

Before the signing, the Catholic bishops of Massachusetts had spoken out against the bill. 

After Healey signed the law, Archbishop Richard Henning of Boston described it as a “grave offense against the sanctity and dignity of every person.”

“The passage and signing of a bill radically expanding abortion in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a grave offense against the sanctity and dignity of every person,” the archbishop said in a statement issued Aug. 11. “I realize that those who work to uphold and promote that dignity may feel discouraged in this moment. I encourage us to continue to proclaim the beauty and the miracle of life.”

An archdiocesan spokesperson told the Herald that the legislation is gravely immoral. However, the archdiocese has not indicated whether Archbishop Henning is considering any canonical action against Healey, according to the news outlet. 

The spokesperson also noted that the archbishop and Massachusetts Bishops Robert McManus, Edgar da Cunha, and William Byrne had urged lawmakers in July to reject the measure, which they called “radical.”

“We continue to reaffirm the Church’s call to its own community and to civil society to provide the resources to welcome and cherish the gift of life,” the spokesperson told the Herald, “as well as to accompany women and families who have known the pain of abortion.”