A new bill under consideration in the Massachusetts Senate would ramp up protections for individuals receiving and providing reproductive and gender-affirming care in Massachusetts in response to perceived threats from the Trump administration, according to Sen. Cindy Friedman (D-Arlington), who recently filed the legislation.
“It’s clear that the government and the Republicans are after both women’s reproductive healthcare and gender-affirming care,” Friedman told GBH News. “It’s just happening over and over again, this assault on women’s and transgender care. ... If you don’t know that’s happening, you haven’t read the papers.”
Since beginning his second term, President Donald Trump has taken multiple steps aimed at reducing the acceptance of transgender people in different spheres, including signing an executive order on his first day as president that denies their existence . Trump has also taken a number of actions lauded by abortion opponents.
The new bill seeks to strengthen an existing state shield law for reproductive and gender affirming care that passed in 2022, shortly after the U.S. Supreme Court’s reversal of Roe v. Wade, and was designed to protect recipients and providers from legal action that might be initiated in other states.
Friedman cited several upgrades the new bill would provide if it becomes law, including new privacy protections to keep the names and addresses of care providers and recipients from becoming public, a ban on Massachusetts civil servants assisting parties in other states seeking injunctive relief and accompanying legal protection for those same civil servants; and a guarantee that Massachusetts emergency rooms provide treatment to anyone seeking emergency reproductive treatment.
While newly filed legislation can languish in both the Senate and the House, Friedman’s bill seems to have several advantages working in its favor, including vocal backing from state Senate President Karen Spilka and the fact that it was the first bill filed as part of Response 2025, the Senate’s newly launched effort to make laws that protect Massachusetts from what the Democrat-dominated Legislature deems threatening overreach by the Trump administration.
Friedman said she thinks the bill’s prospects in the House will be favorable if and when it’s passed by the Senate.
“I would think that [the House] would be very supportive, because they were very supportive when we did Shield 1.0, right?” Friedman said. “It’s where the commonwealth stands on these issues, and we’re just doing the next version as we look forward to what’s coming down [from the Trump administration].”
Ana Vivas, the spokesperson for House Speaker Ron Mariano, stressed that the House as a chamber has been broadly supportive of the priorities contained in the new shield bill.
“The House has, on a number of occasions, voted to protect reproductive rights and access to gender affirming care, including passing legislation last session that would have protected critical data of those seeking these important health services,” Vivas said in a statement. “The House looks forward to reviewing legislation that will continue Massachusetts’ commitment to protecting reproductive and transgender rights.”
Friedman’s bill has been assigned to the Legislature’s Joint Committee on Healthcare Financing. No hearing has yet been scheduled.
