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CONTACT: Evan Lips, communications director
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BOSTON — The Massachusetts Republican Party is calling attention to a Celebration of Life rally Wednesday on Beacon Hill aimed at combating the Democrats’ ROE Act misinformation campaign. 

“The Radical Left is using scare tactics to trick people into thinking women’s reproductive rights are at risk unless we pass this legislation,” said Chairman Jim Lyons. “That is blatantly untrue. 

“The Democrats’ proposal would instead strip away a crucial provision ensuring medical care for those of us who are miraculously born alive.” 

The effects of the Democrats’ misinformation campaign was on full display in June when even the vice president of the Massachusetts Medical Society, Dr. Carol Allen, admitted she is “not familiar with that particular section,” referring to the crucial section of state law that the abortion industry’s proposal would erase:

Section 12P: Abortion performed pursuant to Sec. 12M; preservation of life and health of child
Section 12P. If an abortion is performed pursuant to section twelve M, the physician performing the abortion shall take all reasonable steps, both during and subsequent to the abortion, in keeping with good medical practice, consistent with the procedure being used, to preserve the life and health of the aborted child. Such steps shall include the presence of life-supporting equipment, as defined by the department of public health, in the room where the abortion is to be performed.

Wednesday’s rally will begin Wednesday at 10 a.m. inside the State House’s Great Hall. Abortion survivor Claire Culwell will be a featured speaker.  

Myrna Maloney Flynn of Massachusetts Citizens for Life said the timing of the rally is critical as the proposed legislation has yet to receive a recommendation from the Joint Judiciary Committee.  

“This is a way to put pressure on legislators and to inform the public,” Maloney Flynn said. “With all of the misinformation out there, Wednesday’s Celebration of Life rally gives people a chance to take action.”  

“Withholding lifesaving medical care from a newborn is the very definition of infanticide,” Lyons said. 

The Infanticide Act: Just the facts

● H. 3320,​ and its companion, ​S. 1209, would eliminate current laws requiring that physicians “take reasonable steps to preserve the life and health of the aborted child” — the following language in the current law would be eliminated entirely:
Section 12P: Abortion performed pursuant to Sec. 12M; preservation of life and health of child Section 12P. If an abortion is performed pursuant to section twelve M, the physician performing the abortion shall take all reasonable steps, both during and subsequent to the abortion, in keeping with good medical practice, consistent with the procedure being used, to preserve the life and health of the aborted child. Such steps shall include the presence of life-supporting equipment, as defined by the department of public health, in the room where the abortion is to be performed.

● Both bills would repeal state laws requiring that lifesaving equipment be present in the same room where failed abortions are conducted.

● These bills would allow for abortions after a 24-week period, citing that “medical judgment may be exercised in the light of all factors — physical, emotional, psychological, familial, and the person’s age — relative to the well-being of the patient.”

● Children born after the 24-week mark, ​according to the New England Journal of Medicine,​ if provided with medical treatment, have a survival rate of more than 50 percent — a number that jumps up to 72 percent at 25 weeks.

● The pro-abortion Guttmacher Institute, named after former Planned Parenthood president and eugenics supporter Dr. Allan Frank Guttmacher, have acknowledged​ “that most women seeking later terminations are ​not doing so for reasons of fetal anomaly or life endangerment.”

● These bills repeal parental consent requirements for minors between the ages of 12 and 17 who are considering having an abortion.

● These bills would end the requirement that abortions after 24 weeks of pregnancy be performed in hospitals.