Delegates to the 2022 MTA Annual Meeting of Delegates approved a new business item calling for the creation of a task force to explore ways to protect reproductive rights — including the right to abortion — and help people from other states seeking care in Massachusetts.
The delegates acted after the leak of a draft opinion that suggested the U.S. Supreme Court would overturn the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade decision. The court did so on June 24, and many states moved rapidly to ban or heavily restrict abortion access.
In Massachusetts, abortion remains legal and has been protected under state law. After the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, the governor and the Legislature took action to protect physicians in the state and patients from other states seeking services here.
MTA members have now been appointed to the Task Force on Reproductive Rights, which is to operate through Dec. 31. It will reach out to reproductive rights organizations in Massachusetts and other states to seek information.
According to the NBI, the task force will make recommendations on how the MTA, on its own and with other unions, can assist people from other states by funding travel, housing and other forms of support for abortion care. The task force will also look beyond the immediate emergency and explore ways to protect reproductive rights and health.
"The MTA’s history is one of relentlessly fighting to uplift human rights — and fighting against any attempts to control and marginalize women," said MTA President Max Page. "The extremist right-wing supermajority on the Supreme Court used the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization case to move an agenda aimed at revoking rights for women and other people who need reproductive care. We have no doubt that this is the opening salvo in a systematic and wholesale assault on civil, women’s and LGBTQ+ rights."
The MTA also has signed on to the Massachusetts Beyond Roe Agenda launched by Reproductive Equity, which is fighting to ensure that reproductive choice is protected in the Commonwealth.
