A driver who admitted drinking two shots of whiskey and taking oxycodone and another prescription drug before blacking out and hitting a pedestrian and about a dozen cars should not have been held without bail under the state's dangerousness law, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ruled Friday.
That's because the state statute that allows detaining a person after a dangerousness hearing does not specifically mention the crimes the driver was charged with – which were manslaughter and assault and battery by means of a dangerous weapon causing serious bodily injury.
An abortion expansion bill signed into law by Governor Charlie Baker in July was "a significant victory," but taking the fight to crisis pregnancy centers remains on the agenda, a pro-abortion Massachusetts state senator said.
"No one in Massachusetts or coming to Massachusetts should ever need worry about whether they will be able to access physical or mental health care related to pregnancy. That worry persists because we still need to provide licensure for at-home midwifery care, create post-miscarriage mental health care, robustly combat so-called 'crisis pregnancy centers' or fake women's health centers, ensure full-spectrum sex education, and far more," state Senator Becca Rausch (D-Needham) said in a written statement dated Friday, August 12.
