Beacon Hill puts up post-Roe protections for state

The state House on Wednesday moved quickly to pass independent legislation codifying reproductive and gender affirming care rights into the law, passing a just released bill to the Senate for consideration.

“Today, in addition to codifying access to abortion and reproductive health, and in stark contrast to other state governments this bill also affirms Massachusetts residents constitutional right to gender affirming health care and protects the providers of those services,” state Rep. Kate Hogan said of the bill.

The House had not planned to meet in formal session Wednesday, but after Friday’s landmark Supreme Court decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, the 1973 case which recognized abortion rights nationally, announced Tuesday they had approved the draft of a 21-page bill codifying the protections Roe guaranteed into law in Massachusetts.

“We’re anticipating what the next level of fight is going to be, which is other states trying to chip away at our constitutional rights here in Massachusetts, so these are safeguards we’re putting up to ensure that that does not happen, whether that’s protections for practitioners or protections for residents here in Massachusetts,” Rep. Mike Day, the House Judiciary Committee chair, said Tuesday afternoon.

The bill passed, 136 to 17. The bill will make it illegal for healthcare providers to share information about a patient’s reproductive care or gender affirming care with out of state agencies and protect the providers of that care. It would also make it illegal for state agencies to comply with requests for such information and prevent law enforcement from complying with related out of state extradition requests.

“Today the Massachusetts House of Representatives is standing up and declaring that all of our residents deserve safe access to necessary health care,” Hogan said. “Today we affirm our dedication to protecting the rights of all of our residents by codifying this care, and making it the rule of law in our commonwealth.”

Hogan said the bill will also protect transgender youth who may require a range of gender affirming care and, she said, who are at high risk for depression and suicide.

“Gender affirming care which includes medical surgical mental health and non-medical services is necessary care for our transgender and nonbinary residents. These health care services are crucial to the health and well being of the community, particularly adolescents, so particularly our kids,” she said.

Hogan said the bill is a model for other legislatures to use if they choose to pick up the fight the Supreme Court sent to the several states.

Rep. Ann-Margaret Ferrante invoked religion in her supporting arguments, saying the choice of whether to have an abortion is inherent of the “god given right of motherhood.”

Hogan said the bill is a model for other legislatures to use if they choose to pick up the fight.