(un)Official Blog of Massachusetts

Jessica Valenti at Abortion, Every Day:

Okay, I promised I wouldn’t work on my vacation, but this news was too good not to share: Massachusetts just legalized abortion throughout pregnancy, becoming the 10th state to allow abortion after 24 weeks.1 At a bill signing ceremony today, Gov. Maura Healey said, “We believe that health care decisions should be made between women and families and their doctors, not politicians.” Until now, abortion later in pregnancy was only permitted to protect the patient’s life or health, or because of a grave fetal diagnosis. The Prioritizing Patient Access to Care Act changes Massachusetts law to allow abortion after 24 weeks “when based upon the professional judgement of the physician.”

“It comes down to a simple, but powerful conviction,” bill sponsor Rep. Christine Barber said. “Decisions about abortion care must remain between a patient and their provider. No one else.” Barber said she was inspired to introduce the legislation after hearing from patients who were forced to leave the state for abortion care. Kate Dineen, for example, had to travel to Maryland after learning her son suffered a massive stroke in utero. As devastating as her diagnosis was, it didn’t fit the narrow legal requirements for abortion in Massachusetts. “I am profoundly grateful that our state leaders are righting this wrong once and for all,” Dineen said today. I wish women didn’t have to relive their most traumatic moments to create legislative change, but I’m so awed by those willing to do so—all in the hope it might save another woman from similar suffering. Something that’s not getting nearly enough attention: the legislation also clears the way for clinic-based care after 24 weeks—it struck down Massachusetts’ requirement that abortions later in pregnancy be performed in hospitals. That’s a big deal!

Massachusetts just became the 10th state to legalize post-fetal viability abortions, permitting abortions after 24 weeks “when based upon the professional judgement of the physician.”

Right-wing and anti-abortion media are running with the inflammatory framing that the commonwealth legalized “abortion up until birth.”

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Moving there next week

Plymouth Rock, reality: 121 years after a boat carrying a bunch of people, some seeking financial opportunity and some trying to find a place to practice their Anxiety Nightmare Religion where nobody would object to their being deeply annoying all the time, landed in a very much occupied area and the passengers declared said area 100% Free For the Stealing, they were going to build a wharf when a 94-year-old leader of the Anxiety Nightmare Religion said "NO! my father who came over on a totally different boat three years after the first boat said that's where the first boat docked! you can't bury it under a wharf!"

you've probably already noticed that turn signals ("blinkahs") don't serve their usual function here - a common saying on the server is that using them as intended is just giving information to your enemies. you may be tempted to conclude that these "blinkahs" are useless. not so! they are exclusively used for parrying cars audacious enough to think they can just drive past you. the timing is a five-frame window beginning when you can first see the approaching car in your sideview mirrors. simply engage your blinkah and then immediately jump out in front of your opponent. if you get the timing right, you will build super meter. if you're too early, you've accidentally performed a safe traffic maneuver, resetting your meter to 0. if you're too late, you crash and may have to transition to direct PvP, which is outside the purview of this guide.

yellow lights can also be parried by running them, with the amount of super gained determined by how far you make it through the intersection before the light turns red. the ideal window you're aiming for here is between your front and back wheels crossing the white line

you can use your super meter to cast a variety of spells to hinder your opponents. popular meter-efficient spells include mainstays such as "Summon Double-Parked Uber Eats Driver", "Line-Skipping Merge", and "Greater Unmarked Cop". if you max out your meter, you can cast the legendary "Power Word: Storrow".

the super meter system works differently for bikes. obviously, since they lack blinkahs and run red lights anyways, they can't build super in any of the normal ways. instead, they build it up passively, since their very existence enrages every driver around them. to offset this, the spell list for bikes is a lot lower-power than the spell list for cars, mostly being focused on mobility or utility instead of offense (although there are some notable exceptions like "U-Lock Missile"). the capstone spell for bikes is, of course, "Post Misleadingly Edited GoPro Footage On Reddit".