MA House Passes Comprehensive Reproductive Rights Legislation

BOSTON – Representative David P. Linksy (D-Natick), joined his colleagues in the Massachusetts House of Representatives to pass comprehensive legislation to further protect reproductive health care and gender-affirming services in the Commonwealth. Although abortion remains legal in Massachusetts, the Massachusetts House took additional efforts to further protect these rights and establish additional safeguards following the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade. The bill includes confidentiality measures for providers, mandates insurance coverage for abortion services with no cost sharing, expands access to emergency contraception, and provides legal protections to providers, out-of-state patients, and insurers.

“The Supreme Court’s decision to completely overturn Roe v. Wade represents a fundamental attack on reproductive rights. Now, more than ever, it is the responsibility of leaders in Massachusetts to ensure that the Commonwealth can serve as a sanctuary for individuals seeking reproductive health care, and for providers whose licenses could be at risk because of this recent Supreme Court decision,” said Representative Linsky. “I want to thank, Speaker Mariano, Chairs Michlewitz and Day, as well as all my colleagues in the House, for their commitment to protecting an individual's right to choose, and for their hard work that facilitated the passage of this legislation.”

“An Act expanding protections for reproductive rights:”

• Allows providers to apply to the Secretary of State to shield the health care professional’s address from public disclosure
• Designates reproductive health care and gender-affirming services as legally protected health care activity
• Reaffirms that access to reproductive health care and gender-affirming services are a right secured by the constitution or laws of the Commonwealth
• Requires insurance coverage for abortion and abortion-related care without being subject to deductibles, coinsurance, copayments, or other cost-sharing requirements
• Requires the Department of Public Health (DPH) to issue a statewide standing order to authorize licensed pharmacists to dispense emergency contraception

Protects providers and out-of-state patients in Massachusetts by:

• Prohibiting the Boards of Registration of various health professions from disciplining or taking adverse action on an application for registration of any person who assists with reproductive health care or gender-affirming services
• Prohibiting Massachusetts law enforcement from providing information related to an investigation or inquiry into legally protected health care services to federal or another state’s law enforcement agencies, quasi-law enforcement agencies, or private citizens
• Prohibiting medical malpractice insurers from discriminating against a provider that offers reproductive or gender-affirming health care services
• Protecting Massachusetts residents from efforts to enforce court rulings from other states based on health care activity that is legally protected in Massachusetts
• Prohibiting any Massachusetts court from ordering a person in Massachusetts to give testimony or produce documents for use in connection with any proceeding in an out-of-state tribunal concerning legally protected health care activity
• Protecting Massachusetts residents and providers from lawsuits seeking to penalize health care activities legally protected in Massachusetts
• Prohibiting a justice from issuing a summons for a person in Massachusetts to testify or appear in a court in another state in prosecutions or grand jury investigations related to legally protected health care activity
• Limiting the Governor’s authority to surrender persons to acts that would be punishable under Massachusetts law and prohibiting them from surrendering a person charged in another state as a result of engaging in legally protected health care activity
• Updating language from the 2020 ROE Act to ensure that impacted patients are able to receive in-state care

“An Act expanding protections for reproductive rights” (H. 4930) passed the Massachusetts House of Representatives 136-17. It now goes to the Senate for their consideration.

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