Healey backs abortion access during Vineyard visit

Gov. Maura Healey arrived on Martha’s Vineyard on Thursday, with her first public appearance as governor at Health Imperatives in Tisbury. 

The Health Imperatives visit was one of several stops in the governor’s schedule on the Vineyard. Also on the schedule was an affordable housing development roundtable in West Tisbury that was closed to the press, and a visit to the Island Food Pantry in Oak Bluffs. 

At Health Imperatives, Healey took a tour of the facilities and heard from Health Imperatives CEO Julia Kehoe about the issues that Islanders face, such as a lack of insurance and housing. 

“It’s a beautiful facility, it’s a welcoming facility and it’s exactly the kind of place so many communities need,” Healey said. 

Health Imperatives received over $700,000 in state funding late last year to become the first abortion services provider on the Island. Medical assisted abortions were planned to begin in July. 

“In just a matter of days, we’ll offer medication abortion here and in Hyannis, Nantucket, Wareham, New Bedford, Plymouth, and Brockton,” Kehoe said Thursday, saying that southern Massachusetts will no longer be an “abortion desert.”

“We’re increasing access to a critical health service that for too long, too many people have had to travel too far to receive,” Kehoe said. 

State Rep. Dylan Fernandes, D-Falmouth, and State Senator Julian Cyr, D-Truro, said this was the first time they welcomed a governor to Martha’s Vineyard during their tenures in the state legislature. Both underscored the importance of Health Imperative in providing reproductive care to residents of the Cape and Islands. Other facilities are planned on the Cape and Nantucket.

Healey’s visit to the health clinic on the Vineyard comes near the one-year anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court decision to uphold Mississippi’s abortion ban and a narrow vote to overturn Roe v. Wade, a landmark Supreme Court decision that protected an individual’s freedom to have an abortion. 

Healey called the Supreme Court’s choice a “terrible, misguided decision.” She said many people are scared because of legislation being passed in “too many places” that hinder reproductive care, access to abortion, and gender-affirming care.

“These are incredibly harmful, cruel policies and decisions that have such a detrimental impact, particularly those who are poor, those people of color, and so many other [vulnerable] populations,” she said. 

“I have said that we will continue to be, in Massachusetts, a beacon of hope for patients and providers here in Massachusetts and around this country,” the Governor said, underscoring the legislation Massachusetts passed to protect abortion accessibility. 

Healey has made providing abortion accessibility a key part of her tenure. In April, Healey issued an executive order to protect access to mifepristone, medication that had been prescribed to safely terminate pregnancies, after a Texas federal judge’s decision blocked the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s approval of the drug — a decision that is being appealed by the U.S. government. The state also stockpiled the drug in case of a possible shortage. 

During the visit, Healey reaffirmed her commitment to providing abortion accessibility. 

“Whatever it takes, whatever we need to do as a state to support access to reproductive healthcare — to health care, which I think is a human right— we are going to do,” Healey said.

After the visiting Health Imperatives, Healey attended an affordable housing roundtable in West Tisbury, which was closed to the press. She told reporters after the event that she was “impressed” by the collaboration among Vineyard towns. Healey said that hearing about the rise in housing insecurity left her “all the more committed” to creating affordable housing across the state. 

Staff members Mary Stycos and Merrick Carreiro showed Healey around the facility. Island Food Pantry, which operates under the Island Grown Initiative, has a registration list of more than 4,200 people. Currently, the pantry sees approximately 2,100 people a month.

The COVID-19 pandemic caused the pantry’s client base to double. Upon hearing this information, Healey said the numbers were “unbelievable.”

Senior programs director Noli Taylor explained that running a food pantry on an island comes with a unique set of challenges. “We look at food from a lens of climate,” Taylor said. If the weather is too bad for boats, the pantry will be unable to receive a food shipment that particular day.

Additionally, the island is home to many undocumented immigrants who do not qualify for food assistance such as SNAP. This, according to pantry staff, adds an additional hurdle in combating food insecurity on the island.

Healey said she found the pantry workers “inspiring.”

“Thank you for doing what you do with folks that are really vulnerable,” Healey said. “We want to do anything and all that we can as an administration.”

After the pantry, Healey visited the PA Club in Oak Bluffs.