The "elimination of any legal restraint on late-term abortion" is "a radical measure which is gravely immoral," the Catholic bishops of Massachusetts said. The new law allows physicians to perform abortions after 24 weeks of pregnancy if in their "professional judgment" it is medically necessary. "As Catholic bishops we have a moral responsibility to present and uphold Catholic teaching and the sacred God-given dignity of every human life from conception to the natural death," the bishops' statement read. the bishops declared and invited "the Catholic community to pray for a renewal of reverence for all human life." "May we proclaim, in words and action, that every human life is worth the total gift of ourselves."