CatholicVote, a national Catholic advocacy organization, formally asked Massachusetts bishops to determine whether Gov. Maura Healey automatically incurred excommunication under canon law after she signed legislation stripping the state's longstanding restrictions on abortions past 24 weeks of pregnancy.
Healey signed the law on Aug. 10, 2026, at the Massachusetts State House in Boston. The measure takes effect Nov. 8. It replaces the previous 24-week threshold with a standard based on a physician's professional judgment, removing a gestational limit from state law and placing Massachusetts among 10 states that now permit the procedure through the full term of pregnancy.
In a letter to the Massachusetts bishops, CatholicVote President and CEO Kelsey Reinhardt argued that Healey, who is Catholic, qualifies as an "accomplice" in abortion under canon law and that the bishops should formally declare any excommunication she has already incurred. Catholic canon law provides for automatic excommunication in certain circumstances without a bishop's decree — CatholicVote's position is that Healey's action triggered that status and that church leaders have an obligation to acknowledge it publicly.
"To weaponize Catholic virtues, to weaponize Christian virtues in the defense of something so egregiously contrary to the faith is a new moment in the political landscape and in the way in which bishops should deal with politicians," Reinhardt said.
Reinhardt also addressed the long-running practice among Catholic officeholders of separating personal religious belief from their public policy positions on abortion. "We've seen generations of Catholic politicians now claim this same exception," she said. "It gave cover for too many years and now that cover is no longer possible."
Bishop Robert Barron, who leads the Diocese of Winona-Rochester in Minnesota, condemned the new law in direct terms. "Please understand what this means. A fully-formed child, moments before exiting the birth canal, can be eviscerated, chopped into pieces, have its head crushed or skin burned off," Barron said. Barron's condemnation went to the procedure itself, not to Healey by name, but it came as CatholicVote's call for formal discipline was gaining attention nationally.
The question of how Catholic bishops should respond to Catholic politicians who support abortion access has run through American church life for decades. High-profile confrontations have included debates over whether politicians such as President John F. Kennedy, Speaker Nancy Pelosi and President Joe Biden — all Catholic — should receive communion or face formal censure. Formal declarations of excommunication against sitting officeholders have been rare, and the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops has not adopted a uniform national policy requiring denial of communion or formal discipline for Catholic politicians who support abortion rights.
Healey is a Democrat who won the Massachusetts governorship in 2022. She has not publicly responded to the excommunication demand. Her office signed the abortion legislation during a ceremony attended by abortion-rights advocates.
The Massachusetts law's Nov. 8 effective date gives opponents a narrow window before it takes full force. No legal challenge had been announced as of the signing date. The law puts Massachusetts in a group of states — including Colorado, New Jersey and Oregon — that set no gestational limit on abortion access in statute.
CatholicVote did not disclose whether any Massachusetts bishop has responded to its letter or indicated plans to open a formal canonical review. Under Catholic canon law, bishops retain discretion over whether to pursue formal declarations even when an automatic penalty may have been incurred. The Massachusetts bishops have not issued a public statement specifically addressing the excommunication question.
Republican critics of Healey have used the abortion expansion as a campaign issue. Some Catholic Democrats argue that the church hierarchy oversteps when it conditions sacramental access on legislative votes, a position that commands support among a significant share of self-identified American Catholics in polling.
