Latest news with #RoeAct
Yahoo
07-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Federal threats cited in push for student immigrant protections
BOSTON (SHNS) – Education was the 'lifeline' towards stability and opportunity for Emily Romero Gonzalez, who moved to the U.S. at the age of three. 'I grew up undocumented, and knew from a young age that I was different from other students. I couldn't travel to visit my family in Peru, I didn't qualify for certain programs that my peers did, my parents and I couldn't own our own home, and I was constantly visiting lawyers' offices,' Romero Gonzalez, now an education advocate at Massachusetts Advocates for Children, recalled. 'But the one thing I knew that I had access to, no matter what, was school, was an education,' she added. Gonzalez and other education, immigrant and disability advocates are flagging urgent concerns about federal threats to education rights for immigrant and disabled students. Immigrant parents, attorneys and teachers told legislators at a hearing Tuesday that passing a bill codifying federal student protections into state law would help quell fears in immigrant and disability communities under the Trump administration, which has cracked down on its enforcement of illegal immigration and may look to adjust disability services policy since President Donald Trump took office in January. The Sen. Pavel Payano and Rep. Frank Moran bill (S 436 / H 650) would not add new legal protections, but would codify four different protections related to English Language Learners, immigrant students and students with disabilities established by federal statutes and guidance. 'One in eight Massachusetts students is an English Language Learner, and one in six Massachusetts students has a disability,' Payano said. 'Federal rollbacks threaten the rights that protect these children. By codifying these rights into state law, we ensure that Massachusetts continues to uphold equity and education, no matter what.' The bill would codify the right to public education for students regardless of their documentation status and codify provisions in special education law protecting students with disabilities from inequitable school suspensions or expulsions directly related to their disabilities. It would also codify federal guidance addressing needs of English Language learners with disabilities, along with those ensuring interpreters are provided by schools and are not just bilingual, but trained and qualified. Chief Deputy Attorney General Abby Taylor called on the state to codify the protections, harkening back to when Massachusetts codified the right to abortion five years ago, before the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. 'In 2020, more than a year before the Supreme Court overturned 50 years of legal precedent when it issued the Dobbs decision, the Massachusetts Legislature took action, had the foresight, to pass the Roe Act and to codify abortion rights into statute,' Taylor said. 'Today, we find ourselves in a similar situation with a federal government that is hostile to civil rights and to longstanding protections for our students,' she continued. Taylor said the AG's office continues to uphold the federal laws still in place, but the office is flooded with concerns, especially in the context of changes and cuts to the Department of Education, some of which could impact student civil rights. President Donald Trump has filed an executive order to close the Department of Education and 'return authority' back to the states, which he said 'would provide children and their families the opportunity to escape a system that is failing them.' There has been discussion among Massachusetts elected officials, Attorney General Andrea Campbell included, about whether the United States is facing a constitutional crisis under the Trump administration. 'We drafted it out of concern based on what we were hearing during the election, and then given the outcome of the election, our concerns have only, I think, deepened since the inauguration,' said Diana Santiago, legal director at Massachusetts Advocates for Children. Representatives from groups like nonprofit Reimagining Migration and Mass. Advocates for Children spoke about threats specifically to Plyler v. Doe, the landmark 1982 U.S. Supreme Court case establishing that states must provide free K-12 education to all students, regardless of their immigration status. In New Jersey, Oklahoma and Texas, action challenging free public education for undocumented students has been recently proposed, and in Tennessee, recent action has been paused. The state of California has codified Doe. Numerous mothers of ELL students also spoke in Spanish, with English translators, about the aspect of the bill that would bolster translation services. Mothers talked about their experiences being unable to participate in their children's educations, or speak with their teachers, because of a lack of available and adequate translation services. Some of the mothers have students in Boston Public Schools, which states that it enrolls over 17,000 English Learner students, 31% of the district's total student population. Jessica Lander, the 2023 Massachusetts history teacher of the year, teaches immigrant students and spoke about the lack of access to translators for both teachers and parents. 'I see the ways in which our immigrant origin parents are excluded from [Individualized Education Program] meetings, which is absolutely not okay. And so ensuring that we have translators there, available, easily accessible, is really essential to ensuring equal access to education for our kids,' Lander said. Local News Headlines WWLP-22News, an NBC affiliate, began broadcasting in March 1953 to provide local news, network, syndicated, and local programming to western Massachusetts. Watch the 22News Digital Edition weekdays at 4 p.m. on Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WWLP.
Yahoo
25-02-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Study: Consent law change led to earlier abortions
BOSTON (SHNS) – Certain teenagers managed to access abortions earlier in their pregnancies following passage of a 2020 law that scrapped the requirement for parental consent or a judge's approval for 16- and 17-year-olds, according to new research from Massachusetts reproductive care providers. Citing that improved access to care, providers highlighted their support for legislation pending this session that would allow all young people under age 16 to also self-consent to receiving an abortion. The gestational age, or length of pregnancy, for 16- and 17-year-olds getting an abortion dropped by an average of five days compared to before and after the Roe Act took effect in December 2020, according to a Planned Parenthood League of Massachusetts study published in the American Journal of Public Health. Former Gov. Charlie Baker, who said he supported reproductive health care rights but didn't agree with scrapping parental consent for minors, vetoed that section of the law, which took effect following a legislative override. Isabel Fulcher, the study's principal researcher, said delays in accessing care can increase abortion costs and limit patients' options. 'A few days' delay can mean the difference between a patient being able to access medication abortion, which is often the preferred method for young people, or requiring a procedural abortion,' Fulcher said in a statement Monday. 'By demonstrating that eliminating the parental consent requirement for some young people improves access to time-sensitive care, we hope these finding[s] will encourage lawmakers to remove this barrier for all young people.' Mary Ellen Siegler, spokesperson for the pro-life Massachusetts Family Institute, told the News Service that 'easier access to abortions for minors is nothing to celebrate.' 'Excluding parents from a life-altering decision like abortion for their minor daughter is indefensible,' Siegler said in response to PPLM's new study. 'A still-developing teen cannot fully comprehend the emotional and physical toll of ending her unborn child's life. Abortion not only ends an innocent life but also jeopardizes the physical, mental, and emotional well-being of young women.' PPLM promoted a Sen. Liz Miranda bill (SD 2575) that would eliminate parental consent or the alternative court approval process for 'all young people' to access abortions. Invoking the lack of federal abortion protections, PPLM called Miranda's bill 'the next step for Massachusetts to make our reproductive health laws equitable by ensuring young people have equal right to decide their reproductive health decisions, no matter their family circumstances.' Siegler called Miranda's bill 'reckless' and said it 'will only further hurt minors and enable abusers and traffickers to exploit vulnerable girls while silencing the very people who love and protect them most.' The Judiciary Committee last session sent bills lowering the age of self-consent for abortions, plus other measures to reduce barriers to abortion access, to study. Anti-abortion groups argued removing parental consent would improperly leave parents uninvolved in their children's major medical decisions. PPLM contends Miranda's bill would protect a 'small but highly vulnerable' group of minors who are worried about the possibility of 'dangerous retaliation,' including violence, from their parents if they disclose their pregnancies. In 2023, state data show 77 Massachusetts minors under age 16 got abortions. Previous research from PPLM found minors who did not secure parental consent for an abortion were twice as likely to become disqualified from taking medication abortion, which can be used up to around 10 weeks of pregnancy. Minors who needed to seek a judge's approval experienced an average two-week delay in receiving an abortion, with that delay disproportionately felt among individuals of color and those with low incomes. PPLM's new study analyzed the gestational age that teenagers ages 16-19 received abortions from 2017 to 2022. Minors ages 16-17 received 749 abortions during the study, while the control group of those ages 18-19 had 2,773 abortions. 'Timeliness of care is a key quality metric in health care. By enabling young people to access abortion more quickly, the ROE Act improved quality of care for this group of young people,' Elizabeth Janiak, director of social science research at PPLM, said. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
