What Were They Laughing About?

The woman you see in the middle of this photo is Maura Healey, the current Governor of Massachusetts. She is surrounded by women as she signs into law a bill that removes all gestational limits on abortion, permitting it, in effect, up to the moment of birth.

Even though the end of the year hasn't arrived yet, I want to declare this the worst photo of 2026. What strikes me is not the signature itself, but the faces around it: they are smiling, applauding, laughing.

I will not explain here why I am totally against abortion, nor will I explain why this would be the case even if I were an atheist. What I want to do is grant them this: yes, there are moral dilemmas. A moral dilemma is a collision between two goods, or two duties, where whatever we choose costs us something real. Imagine having to choose between the life of a mother who already has three children at home and the life of her unborn baby.

But do not be mistaken: this law goes far beyond such dilemmas. It does not restrict late-term abortion to tragic cases; it permits it at any time, for any reason, on a single condition — that it “may be performed by a physician based upon the professional judgment of the physician.”

However, I am trying to make a different point here. Grant that moral dilemmas exist. Imagine a plane flying over Sydney with a hundred children on board. It is hijacked, and the hijackers intend to crash it into a school where two thousand children are gathered. What should be done? Unless the authorities can negotiate with the terrorists, the plane will be shot down to prevent the death of two thousand more children. Now imagine the Prime Minister making this announcement, surrounded by people laughing, because they are about to save the two thousand.

The point is very simple: you do not laugh, you weep before such a waste of human life. Just as you do not laugh when a nation sacrifices its young in war for the sake of its citizens.

You simply do not laugh. You do not applaud knowing that, because of this law, a physician may guide a needle under ultrasound into the heart of a child old enough to be born, inject a drug to stop that heart from beating, and then induce the mother’s labour with the very same medicines used to deliver a living baby, so that she gives birth to her child already dead.

So, I ask again: what were they laughing about?