MassLive | ‘An egregious and direct attack’: Massachusetts Senate votes to strengthen protections for abortion care providers

By Alison Kuznitz
Story Originally Appeared on MassLive

With the Supreme Court soon poised to strike down Roe v. Wade, the Massachusetts Senate on Wednesday swiftly approved a budget amendment that would protect reproductive care providers in the commonwealth who deliver services to people from states with abortion bans.

Sen. Cindy Friedman’s amendment shields providers of both reproductive and gender-affirming health care services that are legal in Massachusetts — even if they are not permitted elsewhere, such as in Texas or Oklahoma.

But her successful proposal, which Friedman said is a “very strong and constitutionally-based response” to extraterritorial laws, cannot insulate health care provides from criminal or civil consequences outside of the commonwealth.

“We are now faced with a situation where another state, through state laws enacted by their legislatures, is threatening the rights of law-abiding residents in our commonwealth for engaging in activities that are legal under our laws and were enacted by our duly elected Legislature here in Massachusetts,” Friedman said on the Senate floor. “This is an egregious and direct attack on a state’s ability to make their own laws and protect their own residents.”

Friedman, in an interview with MassLive earlier Wednesday, reflected on her time spent marching in the 1970s for abortion protections. The national moment now is “deeply, deeply, deeply disheartening and very, very scary,” she said.

“What is most disturbing to me is that we are now in a place where states are taking their long-arm reach into my state and making it difficult for my providers and my fellow residents to practice legally protected health care,” Friedman told MassLive.

The successful amendment — wrapped into a nearly $50 million budget that’s still being debated in the chamber, before it heads to negotiations with Senate and House members to reconcile diverging policies — also protects physician assistants, nurses, psychologists, social workers and other individuals connected to the delivery of reproductive or gender-affirming care, according to a document shared by Senate President Karen Spilka’s office.

Senate budget writers have also carved out $2 million for abortion and reproductive health care access within their initial fiscal 2023 budget proposal, in an allotment that’s $1.5 million more than what the House of Representatives approved in its budget last month.

Spilka, in a statement celebrating the amendment’s passage, praised the Senate for taking “decisive action.”

“Let me be clear: the Senate will always protect the rights of our residents to access reproductive and gender-affirming health care,” said Spilka, who in recent days has hinted at pending legislation to strengthen abortion protections already enshrined into Massachusetts state law.

Friedman, wary of bounty-style provisions allowed elsewhere in the United States, said her amendment prevents Massachusetts state law enforcements agencies from assisting out-of-state or federal agencies seeking information about services “constituting legally protected health care activities in Massachusetts.”

Similarly, the proposal restricts Massachusetts courts from ordering people to give testimony or produce documents about legal health care services.

“Anyone who faces abusive litigation in another state over legally protected health reproductive and gender-affirming care services can sue in Massachusetts courts to obtain a judgment, or among other things, damages — including actual damages, expenses, costs and reasonable attorney fees against the person who sued them,” Friedman said in her official remarks.

The amendment also implements a statewide standing order that directs insurers to cover emergency contraception costs, Senate Majority Leader Cindy Creem noted in her remarks. Ensuring access to reproductive and gender-affirming care is “core to our state policies,” she said.

“We need to do what we can to remove barriers to such access and make sure women in the commonwealth of Massachusetts maintain agency over their reproductive decisions and have the choices they deserve,” Creem said on the Senate floor.

Amid impassioned remarks over Roe v. Wade, Sen. Julian Cyr broadened the amendment’s focus on the “unprecedented attack” on the LGBTQ community, especially transgender youth. More than 200 anti-LGBTQ bills have been filed in state legislatures this year, with over half targeting transgender people, Cyr said.

“This amendment makes clear that actions and laws that impede access to gender-affirming care services are contrary to public policy and demonstrates that we will do everything that is within the commonwealth’s control to try to shield providers, helpers and patients from such interference in this time — once unimaginable, where the civil rights of women and LGBTQ people are on the cusp of systemic erosion in other states in this union,” Cyr said on the Senate floor.

The Beyond Roe Coalition — including Reproductive Equity Now, the ACLU of Massachusetts and Planned Parenthood Advocacy Fund of Massachusetts — praised the Senate’s action Wednesday.

“As our Commonwealth prepares for the fall of federal constitutional abortion protections, strong state leadership on reproductive equity issues is critical to ensure every person has access to the full spectrum of reproductive health care,” Rebecca Hart Holder, executive director of Reproductive Equity Now, said in a statement. “I’m proud that the Massachusetts legislature is acting to meet this enormous challenge and ensure our Commonwealth remains a beacon for reproductive freedom.”