BOSTON — A Massachusetts law loosening limits on abortions at 24 weeks of pregnancy or later is now in force, after Gov. Maura Healey invoked emergency powers Friday and cut off a bid by opponents to put it on hold pending a 2028 repeal vote, according to The Boston Globe.

The Globe reported that Healey added an emergency preamble, a step that makes a statute effective at once. She told Secretary of State William F. Galvin of the decision in a letter. "I therefore declare that it is in the public interest that the act take effect immediately, and I declare that act to be an emergency law," she wrote, as quoted by the Globe.

Under prior state law, abortions past 24 weeks were permitted only in limited situations, such as saving the patient's life. The new measure hands that decision to a physician's professional judgment, a shift the Globe said ranks Massachusetts among the states with the broadest abortion laws. Lawmakers approved it in July, Healey signed it in August, and it had been scheduled to take effect within days.

About a week before Healey acted, Massachusetts Citizens for Life and Massachusetts Family Action said they had gathered nearly 100,000 signatures. Getting a repeal question on the ballot takes more than 37,000, and suspending the law until the vote takes 12,430 more. The campaign faced a Friday deadline to file with Galvin's office, which must certify the signatures. The Globe did not report whether that had happened.

In her letter, Healey wrote that any delay "would prolong uncertainty for patients, families, physicians and health care institutions, and risk further harm to the health and safety of women in Massachusetts."

Before the declaration, Carol Rose, executive director of the ACLU of Massachusetts, told the Globe that nine patients had traveled out of state for emergency abortions past 24 weeks since the signing. "There are actual people whose lives are on the line," Rose said.

Sam Miele, who directs Massachusetts Family Action, had not replied when the Globe sought comment. Healey, a Democrat, had campaigned on abortion rights and won reelection by a wide margin days earlier.