SJC issues preliminary injunction allowing 2022 newborns protection initiative petition to advance

Sept. 9, 2021

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CONTACT: Evan Lips, communications director

617-523-5005 ext. 245

BOSTON -- The state's highest court has granted a preliminary injunction allowing a 2022 ballot initiative petition seeking to guarantee Massachusetts newborns access to life-saving medical care to move forward.

Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey disqualified the initiative petition outright last week, claiming the wording to be too "ambiguous."

On Thursday afternoon, however, the state Supreme Judicial Court directed Healey to release a summary of the initiative petition to Secretary of the Commonwealth William Galvin, giving signature-gatherers the green light to begin work:

"There's nothing at all ambiguous about a law guaranteeing newborns access to medical care, and we're glad the state Supreme Judicial Court agreed to grant us a preliminary injunction so we can move forward," said Bernadette Lyons, chairwoman of the Massachusetts Newborn Protection Coalition, the organization sponsoring the measure. "Now the hard work begins, and the people behind this initiative petition are eager to get started."

Petitioners must collect more than 80,200 certified signatures from Massachusetts voters by Nov. 17 to qualify the initiative for the 2022 ballot.

Link to press release

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