Lynch edges away from his ‘pro-life’ label
By 
Congressman Stephen Lynch says he will renounce his “pro-life” label if the term becomes defined by the slew of measures passed by state legislatures to severely restrict or eliminate abortions.
It is a subtle step in a debate with life and death implications that has been raging across the country as part of what Lynch suggested is “purely political strategy to energize and motivate the religious right.”
The “pro-life” label hasn’t precisely defined the South Boston Democrat’s position for a while, and his views have adapted over the years. In an opinion article in Friday’s Boston Globe, where he announced his allegiance shift, Lynch wrote that his views on abortion have “never fit neatly on a bumper sticker,” but he always described himself as pro-life.
In the ongoing debate over when and how and why women can terminate pregnancies, there are two opposing camps – pro-choice and pro-life. Those camps have also become more partisan, and Lynch’s inching away from the “pro-life” label follows the trend of Democrats embracing women’s power over their own medical decisions, and abandoning stances that prioritized unborn life.
The national abortion debate is expected to swiftly move from state capitols to federal courthouses to the US Supreme Court where it will run up against the historic precedent set in the 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling that granted women access to abortion.
It is unlikely that Lynch’s recent contribution will have much impact on the national discussion, but locally there are potential electoral implications. The South Boston pol is heading toward a Democratic primary rematch in 2020 against Brianna Wu, a computer programmer who earned notoriety and faced threats of violence during the toxic “gamergate” fiasco where a group of mostly men ranted online against women in the video game industry. Wu is taking Lynch on from the progressive left, where Lynch’s old stances on abortion may lead to suspicion of him today. Lynch won the 2018 primary 71-23 but Wu has more of a head-start this time around.
On Beacon Hill, the political wave is running counter to the measures passed in Birmingham, Alabama; Jefferson City, Missouri; and Atlanta, Georgia. In Alabama, the new law, scheduled to take effect in about six months, is a near-total ban on abortion with harsh prison sentences for doctors who perform the procedure. The fate of the last remaining abortion clinic in Missouri could be decided by a judge’s ruling expected Friday.
In Massachusetts, Attorney General Maura Healey has put her political heft behind the ROE Act, which aims to ease access to abortion. When Lynch was a state lawmaker, the Globe noted in 2013, he led efforts to ban abortion after 24 weeks. The ROE Act would allow for abortions after 24 weeks in the case of fatal fetal anomalies. Gov. Charlie Baker, a pro-choice Republican, opposes the ROE Act. Jim Lyons, the chairman of the state Republican party, goes farther, contending the bill would legalize “infanticide.”
While it has become more marked by a partisan split, the lines aren’t so neatly drawn on the abortion debate. In Louisiana, Gov. John Bel Edwards signed a restrictive abortion measure into law on Thursday.
For generations the legal right to take the wrenching step of terminating a pregnancy has been secured by the precedent set by the Supreme Court, which can only be overturned by that court itself or by a constitutional amendment. Now that legal foundation is showing some cracks. Some fear and others eagerly anticipate that President Donald Trump’s two appointments to the nine-member panel – Justice Neil Gorsuch and Justice Brett Kavanaugh –could prove the deciding factor in overturning Roe or hollowing it out through more narrow rulings.
ANDY METZGER
Sen. Pat Jehlen of Somerville, an outspoken charter school critic, blocks a New Bedford home rule petition containing a charter school compromise from moving ahead for a hearing. State Education Commissioner Jeff Riley earlier had said the compromise needed to pass by week’s end or he would allow the Alma del Mar charter school to launch a bigger expansion in New Bedford. (CommonWealth) As intrigue swirls on Beacon Hill, a Boston Globe editorial takes lawmakers to task for their inaction on the bill while Ricardo Rosa, a leading opponent of the compromise, calls it immoral. (CommonWealth)
House Speaker Robert DeLeo and Gov. Charlie Baker are pushing separate climate change bills that would have the state issue $1 billion in bonds. Baker’s proposal would have the state pay the interest on the bonds using money from a deeds excise tax increase, while DeLeo’s plan would have the money come out of the state budget. DeLeo’s plan would also bypass borrowing restrictions set by the governor. (CommonWealth)
MUNICIPAL MATTERS
With a permit issued by the Building Department last week, Claremont Corp. will break ground on a new 300-unit affordable housing complex behind their existing 289-unit complex on Route 104 this summer in Bridgewater. (Brockton Enterprise)
Andres Gonzalez, Lowell’s syringe collection program coordinator, cleans up the dangerous detritus from the opioid epidemic. (Lowell Sun)
WASHINGTON/NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL
US Sen. Edward Markey slams President Trump’s “stealth attack” on immigrants. (CommonWealth)
Boston City Councilor Michelle Wu says fixing our broken democracy can start with holding a neighborhood block party. (Boston Globe)
BUSINESS/ECONOMY
Gillette rolls out a groundbreaking ad that shows a young transgender man getting advice and encouragement from his father has he shaves for the the first time. (Boston Globe)
EDUCATION
The Boston Teachers Union and the city agree to a tentative contract providing 2 percent annual raises and guaranteeing a full-time nurse in every school. (Boston Globe)
German chancellor Angela Merkel offers advice for Harvard graduates as their commencement speaker — and a rebuke of President Trump for his nationalism and isolationist ways. (Boston Globe)
A Newburyport High School student allegedly performed the Nazi salute and sang Hitler-themed lyrics during the school song, according to a fellow classmate who said it was a “breaking point for me and many other Jewish students.” (Salem News)
HEALTH/HEALTH CARE
A group of Massachusetts physicians slammed the state’s marijuana regulatory system for not adequately protecting the public from high-potency pot products, leaving consumers at risk of “serious mental health problems including acute psychosis paranoia, schizophrenia, depression, anxiety, and suicide.” (Boston Globe) For more on the concerns they raise, check out CommonWealth’s recent interview with the author of a book raising alarms about the risks of mental illness linked to marijuana use.
ARTS/CULTURE
The racist treatment they received by visitors at the Museum of Fine Arts had a profound effect on students at the Helen Y. Davis Leadership Academy, including 13-year-old Natalia Alexander, who now wants to become a civil rights lawyer. (WBUR) The museum banned two patrons but denied earlier claims that staff inappropriately followed students around and told them not to bring “watermelons” into the facility.
TRANSPORTATION
Mary Connaughton of the Pioneer Institute and former state transportation secretary Jim Aloisi, now with TransitMatters, offer some suggestions for mitigating the traffic problems that will be caused by the coming construction on the Massachusetts Turnpike in Boston. (Boston Globe)
The MBTA is demolishing wooden trestles that date to 1911 carrying the commuter rail over the Annisquam River, and shuttle buses will carry passengers between Rockport and West Gloucester for the next two weeks. (Gloucester Daily Times)
ENERGY/ENVIRONMENT
After 46 years, the controversial Pilgrim nuclear plant is shutting down on Friday. Entergy Corp., the plant’s owner-operator, announced plans to shutter the 680 MW reactor in October 2015, one month after the Nuclear Regulatory Commission categorized it as one of the worst-run plants in the country. (Cape Cod Times)
CASINOS
MGM Resorts started laying off another 557 workers on Thursday, bringing the total for the year to 1,070. (Las Vegas Review-Journal) Six of the laid-off workers came from the company’s Springfield casino. (MassLive)
CRIMINAL JUSTICE/COURTS
Newton District Court Judge Shelley Joseph wants her suspended salary reinstated while she fights criminal charges that she helped an undocumented immigrant escape ICE agents. (MassLive)
Nantucket District Court Judge Thomas Barrett ordered the Club Car restaurant to turn over surveillance footage from 2016 that may shed light on groping allegations against actor Kevin Spacey. (Associated Press)
The mother of a MCI-Cedar Junction inmate was sentenced Thursday in connection with smuggling drugs into the facility. (Herald News)
Weymouth resident John M. Naumann is in custody after police say he broke into a Washington Street home to grab his baby. (Patriot Ledger)
Ken Doctor says the proposed GateHouse-Gannett merger shows scale is still the watchword in the shrinking news business (the combined company would own one of every six daily newspapers in the country). But eventually, he says, there has to be a plan beyond just getting bigger. (Nieman Journalism Lab) Jon Chesto also runs through the merger talk. (Boston Globe)