Bill proposed to protect Mass. professionals from federal healthcare investigations
Photo I Courtesy of Sam Drysdale / SHNS
Sen. Cindy Friedman (D - Middlesex) presides over a hearing at the State House on April 2.
Senate Democrats announced a bill Monday morning intended to shield reproductive and transgender care in Massachusetts from out-of-state threats, saying it was part of the response effort to the Trump administration.
The bill aims to protect health care professionals and lawyers who represent people who seek reproductive or gender-identity care, by restricting state agencies from cooperating with, or providing information for, federal or out-of-state investigations.
Sen. Cindy Friedman of Arlington filed the bill last week. As chair of the Senate Committee on Steering and Policy, Friedman is leading the Senate's response to measures spinning out of President Donald Trump's first few months in office alongside a Republican-led Congress. The Senate has dubbed the effort "Response 2025."
"In Massachusetts, we do not discriminate against you depending on the type of health care you need, and this bill builds on our actions in 2022 and further strengthens protections for transgender people and those who have the ability to get pregnant," Senate President Karen Spilka said in a statement.
In a press release, Spilka and Friedman said the bill, which the Senate on Monday referred to the Health Care Financing Committee for review, was designed to "protect, defend, and lead Massachusetts through oncoming threats from the federal government."
Massachusetts made abortion protected by law in 2020, in anticipation of threats to Roe v. Wade on the federal level. The U.S. Supreme Court overturned the court precedent protecting abortion in 2022.
In response to that ruling, the Legislature and Gov. Charlie Baker agreed to a 2022 law to protect people in Massachusetts from out-of-state civil or criminal investigations, lawsuits and prosecutions for legally-protected health care, such as abortions.
"We did the first version of this in 2022, and so as we're watching this unfold at the federal level now, we said let's check our laws and make sure we have protections and have no loopholes," Friedman told the News Service.
This is the first bill her committee has filed as part of "Response 2025." Friedman said they targeted this for their first action because "it was something we had done and could start from a very solid base" and was something she and other Senate Democrats "were concerned about, and knew was coming if Trump won."
The Senate committee worked with Attorney General Andrea Campbell and Department of Public Health Commissioner Robbie Goldstein, as well as advocates at the ACLU, Planned Parenthood and GLBTQ Legal Advocates & Defenders to craft the legislation.
The bill would make it illegal for insurance companies to discriminate against nonprofit organizations that offer reproductive or gender-identity care to people in Massachusetts. It would also require that companies protect patient electronic medical records to limit out-of-state entities' access to these records.
"Data sharing to the federal government and other entities could put patients and Massachusetts providers at risk—especially those accessing, prescribing, or dispensing medications related to reproductive or gender-affirming care," the bill's supporters said.
"Gender-affirming care is a legal type of care in Massachusetts," Friedman said. "This says, 'You as the federal government and other states cannot determine what is legal health care in Massachusetts. You seem to be so focused on the whole issues around gender, we're not going to allow that because Massachusetts has decided that this is a legal form of health care.' They love to talk about gender-affirming care and women's reproductive health, but we the state get to decide what kind of care is legal and can be delivered in Massachusetts."
Trump has issued executive orders saying the government would only recognize two genders, including on documents like passports; stopping the Bureau of Prisons from reporting the number of incarcerated transgender individuals and moving transgender women into men's prisons; moving to ban transgender people from serving in the military; and attempting to pull funding from institutions providing gender-identity care for trans youth. A number of these executive orders have been paused by court orders.
The Friedman bill also seeks to protect access to emergency abortions, by requiring any hospital licensed in Massachusetts to provide this emergency procedure if determined necessary by the patient and provider.
Friedman told the News Service this protects people who miscarry, or if a pregnancy becomes dangerous.
"They can't turn anyone away. They have to provide the care that's going to save your life," she said.
The bill's supporters said the Trump administration "has signaled it may allow hospitals to choose to decline giving emergency abortions, even in life-threatening cases."
She added that she hopes by closing these loopholes, Bay Staters feel safe seeking this care.
"We want to make sure that people in our commonwealth are safe and can get the care they need without fear of being harmed or targeted or sent to prison," she said. "It's outrageous. And we want to make sure that people who provide or support people seeking that care are also protected."
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