Massachusetts Legislature Strengthens Protections for Reproductive and Gender-Affirming Health Care Services
BOSTON - The Massachusetts Legislature passed a bill known as the healthcare Shield Act 2.0, a bill that will fortify protections for those seeking and providing reproductive and gender-affirming care in the Commonwealth. The bill, S.2543, which was approved by both the Senate and House chambers on a bipartisan basis, continues the Legislature’s track record of ensuring patients are able to make decisions regarding their own health care.
The Shield Act 2.0 protects access to reproductive and transgender healthcare in Massachusetts. It also adds a layer of protection for patients and providers at a time when attacks on reproductive and transgender rights are escalating on multiple fronts, including executive orders from the Trump Administration, federal funding freezes for care providers, a Supreme Court decision ruling against transgender care, and other states’ lawsuits against physicians providing reproductive healthcare. It builds off the model legislation of the ROE Act and the original shield legislation enacted in 2022.
“The federal government has made one thing clear: Massachusetts is on her own when it comes to protecting the privacy and constitutional rights of our residents. Today, we meet this challenge by ensuring that legally protected healthcare decisions made here in the Commonwealth do not become the basis for radical prosecutors in other states to exploit individuals or encourage corporations to profit off our personal data,” said Representative Michael S. Day (D-Stoneham), House Chair of the Joint Committee on the Judiciary. “The Legislature will always protect our own residents and we will continuously re-affirm the fact that all of our residents have equal protections under our laws and have control over their own healthcare decisions.”
“Just a few years ago, reproductive healthcare was virtually unavailable on the Cape and Islands. We’ve made critical progress bringing these essential services to Falmouth, Martha’s Vineyard, and Nantucket. The Shield Act 2.0 ensures that this hard-won access is protected from political interference from Washington, giving our communities the legal stability and privacy they need to receive care close to home,” said Representative Thomas W. Moakley (D‑Falmouth), member of the Joint Committee on the Judiciary.
Several states have recently passed laws restricting access to reproductive and gender-affirming healthcare while threatening to prosecute individuals who seek those services in Massachusetts. The Shield Act 2.0 prohibits state agencies and law enforcement from cooperating with other states or federal investigations into legally protected reproductive or transgender healthcare provided in Massachusetts. Businesses that manage electronic health information would similarly be limited in sharing patient data connected to these services.
The bill also makes practical updates to protect providers, including: allowing prescriptions to be issued with the name of a healthcare practice rather than an individual practitioner; excluding certain reproductive and gender-affirming medications from the state’s drug monitoring programs; and limiting third-party access to related medical records. It also makes clear that healthcare professionals are free to provide legal care services in Massachusetts, and the Commonwealth will resist attempts by other states or the federal government to prosecute healthcare professionals for providing those services.
Additional provisions of the bill include:
Enhancing license protections for anyone providing or assisting in the provision of reproductive or transgender care.
Forbidding insurance companies from discriminating against or penalizing providers who offer reproductive and gender-affirming care.
Protecting attorneys licensed in Massachusetts from removal or discipline for advising or representing clients on the topics of reproductive or transgender care.
Clarifying that Boards of Registration may not take disciplinary actions against practitioners for providing legally protected care and prohibiting boards from noting in a provider’s records any criminal, legal or disciplinary actions brought against them in other jurisdictions for providing care that is legally protected in Massachusetts.
Prohibiting courts from admitting or considering cases of abuse, neglect, or maltreatment brought against parents or caregivers because they support their child in seeking reproductive or transgender care.
Mandating that acute care hospitals provide stabilizing health services—including abortion care when necessary—to any patient who is injured or seeking emergency treatment, in response to the Trump Administration’s rollback of Biden-era guidance on the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTALA) that required hospitals to deliver abortion care in cases of emergency.