When advocacy pays off

Photo by Keiko Zoll.

…it feels GREAT.

It’s a great morning for Massachusetts. At the eleventh hour on the last day of legislative session, the Massachusetts infertility mandate update was passed favorably out of committee, and then passed the House and Senate! All we need now is Governor Patrick’s signature and the update becomes law; there is no reason he wouldn’t and he is expected to do so. We did it! The Massachusetts infertility mandate has not only been preserved, but updated to provide even broader standards of coverage that will help thousands of women in this state.

The updates to the law will be as follows:

“…Of the General Laws, as appearing in the 2008 Official Edition, is hereby amended by striking out the last sentence and inserting in place thereof the following 2 sentences:- For purposes of this section, ‘infertility’ shall mean the condition of an individual who is unable to conceive or produce conception during a period of 1 year if the female is age 35 or younger or during a period of 6 months if the female is over the age of 35. For purposes of meeting the criteria for infertility in this section, if a person conceives but is unable to carry that pregnancy to live birth, the period of time she attempted to conceive prior to achieving that pregnancy shall be included in the calculation of the 1 year or 6 month period, as applicable.”

The loophole of continual denial of coverage for women over 35 who experience recurrent miscarriage will be closed. The Massachusetts infertility mandate, which leads the nation in its coverage, will now finally be in line with current ASRM guidelines and standards.

It took more than just our legislators to make this happen: it’s folks like us all over the state who wrote emails, letters, and called their legislators. It’s amazingly tireless women like Davina Fankhauser, RESOLVE of New England’s Advocacy Director, who met with legislators and lobbied at the State House, who knows MA law inside and out. It’s women like RESOLVE of New England’s Advocacy Committee (Lee Collins, Sandy O’Keefe, Terri Davidson, and Amy Demma) who kept our members in the loop and prompted us when our action as constituents was needed. It’s the friends of mine who had connections to folks on the Senate Ways and Means Committee and in the State House (shout outs to Claire and Deirdre!). And it’s everyone who spread the word through Twitter, Facebook, and their blogs. Thank you, thank you, thank you to everyone that helped this important piece of legislation makes it way into law!

Change can happen when we come together as a community. And damn if it doesn’t feel awesome when we do.