Senate to vote Wednesday on protections for reproductive, transgender care providers
Photo I Chris Lisinski/SHNS
Senate President Karen Spilka greets reporters before fielding questions outside the Senate Chamber on Wednesday.
The Senate plans to vote next week on legislation updating a 2022 law that shields reproductive and transgender care providers from out-of-state legal action, Senate President Karen Spilka said Wednesday.
Marking a response to the shifting policy landscape under the Trump administration, the Senate Ways and Means Committee plans Wednesday to advance the bill (S 2522) that top Senate Democrats pledged to pursue more than two months ago.
The measure would restrict state agencies from cooperating with federal or out-of-state investigations, require insurance companies to limit access to patient electronic medical records, require licensed Massachusetts hospitals to provide emergency abortions if medically necessary, and more.
Spilka said amendments to the bill will be due Monday ahead of a vote likely on Thursday, June 26. She linked the impending action to a U.S. Supreme Court decision issued Wednesday upholding a Tennessee state law banning transgender care for minors.
"This will enshrine in Massachusetts law that we will protect not only women's health care, but gender-affirming care, and build it into Massachusetts," Spilka said. "This is a strong Massachusetts value, and we feel that this is really important to defend and help our constituents, and it's even more important than it was yesterday. We knew it was critical, but it's really urgent [now]."
The Judiciary Committee favorably reported the bill Monday. All six senators on the panel voted in support, including Republican Patrick O'Connor of Weymouth.
Spilka and her deputies have described the legislation as part of a campaign they dubbed "Response 2025," aimed at reacting to new policies rolled out by President Donald Trump.
The legal shield bill would update a 2022 law, which sought to protect patients and providers of reproductive and transgender care from potentially harmful or chilling action. Sen. Cindy Friedman, the point person for the Senate's Trump response, described it as "the next step in ensuring that people who provide that legal care and who need that legal care get access to it."
Friedman said other issues on her radar affected by federal changes include "book banning," data privacy and "what's happening to the veterans."
"If we have our way, we'll put out one [bill] a month, right? But we can't promise that, because just the shield law itself took us a good six months," Friedman said. "When you're dealing with the state, the feds, other states, the Constitution and the role of states in all of this, it's very, very complicated."
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