In August 2026, Massachusetts legalized abortion after 24 weeks of pregnancy.
It is true that a new law made it possible to obtain an abortion in Massachusetts on a physician’s “professional medical judgment” after the 24th week of pregnancy. However …
… Pregnancy terminations after that point already were legal in the state in four cases: to preserve the life of the gestating person; to preserve the gestating person’s physical or mental health; in case of defect or diagnosis that would result in the death of the fetus; and in the case of a “grave fetal diagnosis that indicates that the fetus is incompatible with sustained life outside of the uterus without extraordinary medical interventions.”
In August 2026, a rumor spread that Massachusetts had legalized “abortion until birth,” — also known as “late-term” abortion — that is, a termination after 24 weeks of pregnancy,
The claim spread across social media, including Instagram, Facebook and X. An X post by Students for Life of America, an anti-abortion organization dedicated to recruiting and mobilizing students across the U.S., tagged Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey, saying “this is evil” (archived):
The post included a video zooming in on an image of a fetus with a hand holding a syringe injecting the fetus in the heart. The video included the screenshot of an apparent post that read:
Massachusetts Governor Maura Healey just signed a law legalizing abortion up until BIRTH. Late-term abortion procedures involve injecting digoxin into a third-trimester baby’s heart, inducing cardiac arrest before delivering the baby dead, as shown in this painting. This is now legal and being celebrated in Massachusetts.
This is EVIL. End late-term abortion now.
It is true that Healey signed into law a statute that enhances abortion protections after the 24-week mark, though the state’s existing law already made it possible to terminate a pregnancy after that point in certain cases.
On July 22, 2026, the Massachusetts legislature passed a bill that updates “state law governing abortions after 24 weeks of pregnancy, ensuring that physicians can provide medically necessary abortion care based on their professional medical judgment.”
“An abortion may be performed by a physician based upon the professional judgment of the physician,” the text said.
This bill updated an existing law that made it possible to terminate a pregnancy after 24 weeks in four specific cases: to preserve the life of the gestating person; to preserve the gestating person’s physical or mental health; in case of defect or diagnosis that would result in the death of the fetus; and in the case of a “grave fetal diagnosis that indicates that the fetus is incompatible with sustained life outside of the uterus without extraordinary medical interventions.”
On Aug. 10, Healey signed the updated text into law, relaxing these rules. The new language says a physician’s judgment is enough to make an abortion possible. Crucially, it does not leave that decision solely to the pregnant person.
Abortions after 21 weeks of pregnancy are rare and represented only 1.1% of all terminations in 2022, according to an abortion surveillance report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Meanwhile, 96% of abortions occur before 15 weeks. (In 2022, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down Roe v. Wade, the 1973 court decision that made abortion legal until viability nationwide. Therefore, pre-2022 data provides a reliable picture of abortion in the U.S.)
For further reading, Snopes has covered many claims about abortion, including the rumor that a bill in North Carolina would allow anyone to kill someone seeking an abortion.
