Catholic bishops in Massachusetts have criticised Democrat Governor Maura Healey after she used her Catholic faith to justify making all nine-months abortions legal.
The emergency order allows doctors to perform abortion based on their professional judgement without legal limitations based on how far into term a woman is.
Governor Healey, who said that her Catholic faith shapes how she looks at responsibility, was criticised by leading Catholic figures in the New England state.
The joint statement released on 7 November was signed by Most Rev Richard Henning, Archbishop of Boston, Rt Rev Robert McManus, Bishop of Worcester, Rt Rev Edgar de Cunha, Bishop of Fall River and Rt Rev William Byrne, Bishop of Springfield.
It condemned what they see as the expansion of what they called a "radically permissive law".
The statement said: “Having read the governor’s editorial defending her decision to override the results of the Repeal 188 efforts, we respectfully and passionately disagree that abortion, the taking of human life, may be considered healthcare.
“We also disagree that there is an emergency requiring the further expansion of the existing and already radically permissive law.
“We call upon the legislators who crafted and passed this bill, and all men and women of good will, to reconsider the troubling state of our culture and its utilitarian and merciless approach to the elderly, the sick, the vulnerable and the unborn,” the bishops added.
Healey, who was re-elected with more than 60% of the vote into a second term earlier this month, attached an emergency preamble to an all-nine-months abortion bill she signed off in August.
Her action, which classified a full-term abortion as a necessity, means that the law takes effect immediately in Massachusetts under state law.
It also blocks the suspension of the law before a state-wide referendum which is expected to be held in November 2028 in the next general election.
More than 100,000 people had signed a signature to challenge the law, which would have put the bill on hold once the petition was certified.
Healey justified the change to the law by presenting that it was her responsibility to be a governor for all faiths and beliefs.
“I am Catholic, and my faith is an important part of who I am," she revealed. "It has shaped my understanding of service, responsibility and our obligation to care for others.
"My faith teaches me to meet people with compassion, respect their dignity and approach suffering with humility.
"My responsibility is to ensure that every family can make deeply personal medical decisions according to their own circumstances, values and the guidance of their doctors.”
Pope Leo recently spoke on the issue of abortion in Uruguay, during his tour of Latin America on 7 November, telling authorities in Montevideo that the unborn "already belongs to the human family".
Ever since the US Supreme Court's judgement in the Dobbs v Jackson Women's Health Organization 2022, states have been recognised as having authority to determine abortion laws.
The right to abortion had been federally protected by the judgement in Roe v Wade 1973, an older Supreme Court judgement which legalised abortion and created the trimester system.