Cardinal O’Malley Shifts Course on Signature Gathering for Anti-Abortion-Funding Petition at Churches

Activists trying to get a referendum on the ballot that would allow the state to stop public funding of abortions can now collect signatures at Roman Catholic churches in the Boston area, a reversal of a policy announced this past June.

The new policy comes with restrictions: Signature gatherers aren’t supposed to be in the direct flow of foot traffic to and from Mass.

Cardinal Sean O’Malley, the archbishop of Boston, released a letter late this week announcing the change. The letter mentions various ballot initiatives without specifying any of them, and leaves it up to individual pastors whether to allow signature gathering at a particular parish.

O’Malley cited “the importance of these efforts” to justify the change in policy, without specifying which efforts.

But the move appears aimed at the effort to bring a proposed constitutional amendment before Massachusetts voters that would make it clear that the state constitution does not require the state government to pay for abortions. If approved, the measure would overturn a 1981 Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ruling that requires the state to fund abortions for poor women.

More