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(RNS) — On Aug. 10, Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey signed House Bill H.5595, which prioritized doctors’ judgment about abortion over bans based on the stage of pregnancy. In response, far-right pundits dusted off age-old accusations that the women involved were “witches.”

Anti-abortion activist Abby Johnson described the signing ceremony as “a coven of witches celebrating depravity.” Harrison Smith, host of the “War Room” podcast, called the women signing the law “shrieking harpies.”

As someone who studies “granny witches,” Appalachian folk magic practitioners, I see these accusations as rooted in the same bigotry that ended a rich tradition of women providing reproductive care to rural communities.

When reproductive healthcare providers and advocates are called demonic and witches, it mirrors the language of far-right leaders’ ancestors, who also labeled the reproductive healthcare providers of their isolated communities…