Massachusetts State Representative Jim Lyons is a Catholic husband to his wife Bernadette and father to their two sons. Jim has worked in the family-owned retail flower and ice cream business for over three decades and he is currently serving his third term in the Massachusetts House of Representatives.

Jim hopes to place a state constitutional amendment on the 2020 ballot in Massachusetts that would overturn a 1981 Supreme Judicial Court ruling that says the state must fund abortions.

On July 28, 2015, the Massachusetts Alliance to Stop Taxpayer Funded Abortion filed its initiative petition with the Massachusetts Attorney General’s Office. The petition, signed by twelve registered voters, seeks to amend the constitution of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts by adding the sentence: “No provision of this constitution shall be construed as requiring the public funding of abortion.”

The Democratic Party and the Hyde Amendment: