The Rhode Island State Senate last week passed a bill that would protect medical providers from civil or criminal action when offering transgender health care and abortion services to out-of-state patients.
“Abortion is health care. Gender-affirming care is health care,” RI Secretary of State Greg M. Amore told the Boston Globe when interviewed about the bill. “The providers of this health care should not fear for their safety or for potential legal repercussions in Rhode Island. This is especially true in the face of the coordinated, national push led by anti-choice and anti-LGBTQ+ organizations to attack reproductive health care and gender affirming care and the health care professionals who provide it.”
Reports the Boston Globe:
On Thursday, the Senate voted 29 to 7 for legislation introduced by Senate Judiciary Committee Chairwoman Dawn Euer, a Newport Democrat.
The bill now heads to the House, where Majority Floor Manager John G. “Jay” Edwards, a Tiverton Democrat, has introduced a companion bill. If the legislation is enacted, Rhode Island would join 12 other states, including Massachusetts and Connecticut, with similar laws.
“Since the fall of Roe v. Wade, we have seen an unprecedented level of attacks on health care providers, on reproductive rights, across the country,” Euer said on the Senate floor. “A number of states have passed hostile actions to try to cross state boundaries and go after health care providers in other states.”
In 2019, Rhode Island enacted the Reproductive Privacy Act to protect abortion rights in the state in case the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. And in 2022, the high court overturned that landmark decision, ending the constitutional right to an abortion that had existed for nearly 50 years.
The Healthcare Provider Shield Act would protect health care providers who are licensed and physically practicing in Rhode Island from arrest and extradition, subpoena for testimony and documents, and professional disciplinary action taken against them in other states. It also would prevent Rhode Island public agencies, including law enforcement, from cooperating with out-of-state investigations into legally protected health care in Rhode Island.
Read the complete Boston Globe article here.
Not a subscriber? Sign up today for a free subscription to Boston Spirit magazine, New England’s premier LGBT magazine. We will send you a copy of Boston Spirit 6 times per year and we never sell/rent our subscriber information. Click HERE to sign up!
