Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey’s office defended her signing of a law that legalizes abortions up to birth.

Healey claims she is a "proud Catholic," even as pro-life leaders and Catholic officials condemned the measure as a radical expansion that allows the killing of viable unborn children up to the moment of birth.

Healey signed H.5595 on August 10. The law, which takes effect November 8, eliminates prior requirements that abortions at or after 24 weeks be limited to cases involving the mother’s life or physical or mental health, or certain serious fetal diagnoses.

It now essentially makes it so the abortionist can sign off on any abortion for any reason up to birth.

Pro-life advocates note this makes Massachusetts the 11th state plus the District of Columbia with no abortion limits of any kind.

In response to widespread criticism, including calls for her excommunication, Healey’s office stated: "As a proud Catholic, she believes everyone is deserving of kindness and empathy, especially in their time of need."

The office added that "she believes that those women and families should have been able to get the care they needed here in Massachusetts, and it was unfair to force them to travel to other states," and that "she is a governor for all people of all faiths."

CatholicVote CEO Kelsey Reinhardt rejected the defense.

She said Healey "is now claiming that as a ‘proud Catholic’ she can justify this law and that ‘everyone is deserving of kindness and empathy’…everyone except the babies that will be killed well past viability."

The Catholic leader added: "She also refers to abortion as ‘care’. This is tripling down on a position explicitly condemned by the Catholic faith."

Reinhardt described the law as "the most extreme legislation to murder babies that could be born today" and invited the bishops of Massachusetts "to ratify her position outside the Church by confirming her excommunication."

Other leading pro-life advocates have also condemned the governor.

"Governor Healey and the Massachusetts Legislature have erased the final protections for unborn children who can feel pain and who could survive outside the womb," said Carol Tobias, president of National Right to Life. "At the very stage when premature babies are receiving lifesaving care in neonatal intensive care units, Massachusetts will permit abortionists to end the lives of children of the same age—and even older. That is not compassion, and it is not health care."

Myrna Maloney Flynn, president of Massachusetts Citizens for Life, said the legislation is "about abortionists normalizing the deaths of fully developed infants and pressuring vulnerable women to permit their unborn children to die in heinous acts of violence. These abortions represent among the most severe human rights abuses permitted in only a few places around the world, including China and North Korea."

The Catholic bishops of Massachusetts had urged lawmakers in July to reject the bill as "radical."

After the signing, Boston Archbishop Richard Henning called the passage and signing of the measure "a grave offense against the sanctity and dignity of every person" and encouraged the faithful "to continue to proclaim the beauty and the miracle of life."

An archdiocesan spokesperson reaffirmed the Church’s call to provide resources to welcome and cherish life while accompanying women and families who have experienced abortion.

Pro-life advocates continue to press for further action, arguing that Catholic leaders should deny Healey Communion and publicly rebuke her for enacting a law that authorizes elective abortions on healthy mothers and healthy, pain-capable unborn children at any stage of pregnancy.