GOV: ORDER COULD BRING BIZ
Where some see tragedy, others see opportunity.
Gov. Charlie Baker, on Monday, said that the executive order his administration issued on Friday providing further protections to visitors to the state seeking reproductive care and the providers of that care may have more benefit than just legal protections.
“I do believe that having listened to and heard from a lot of companies over the course of the past several days about what this decision means with respect to their workforces and their benefit plans, that there may in fact be a big opportunity for Massachusetts to encourage some employers to either come here or expand their footprint here because we are a state that takes this issue seriously and will be there for their employees when they need those kinds of reproductive services and supports,” he said.
Baker’s executive order was issued just hours after the U.S. Supreme Court released a groundbreaking decision that overturned the 1973 law legalizing abortion nationally.
The order will prevent state employees from sharing data about women’s reproductive health with other states and prevent providers of abortion care from being penalized for out-of-state charges. It will also prevent the state from complying with related extradition requests.
According to MassGOP Chairman Jim Lyons, the executive order and Baker’s statements Monday are at odds with what his party wants.
“I think the fact that if Baker is making statements like that, it is a clear indication that he has lost his way,” Lyons said of his fellow Republican. “He’s out of step with Republicans in Massachusetts. Maybe he ought to put out an executive order shutting down drag shows.”
Abortion is legal under state law and constitutionally protected, Baker said, and besides issuing the order he has already been in conversations about any additional protections that reproductive care providers in the state may require.
Attorney General Maura Healey also said Monday she has joined a coalition with 21 other attorneys general in calling the high court’s Friday decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization an affront to the rights of women.
“We refuse to go back to the days of politicians trying to tell people what to do with their bodies,” she said. “When it comes to abortion care, it’s your body and your right to choose. Nobody else gets to make those decisions.”