Yesterday, the MA House joined the MA Senate in voting to strengthen the state’s shield law that protects the right to abortion care and gender-affirming care.

The bill would shield law by prohibiting the Department of Public Health from collecting or disseminating personally identifiable data related to reproductive and gender-affirming care in MA, prohibiting tech service providers, CHIA, and the Health Connector from providing documentation to other states regarding such services, establishing state-level EMTALA protections for emergency abortion care, allowing providers critical anonymity by using their practice name on prescription labels for reproductive and gender-affirming health care medicines, ensuring clinicians and lawyers are protected from professional discipline related to hostile litigation, and more.

The bill passed 136 to 23.

20 of the 23 NO votes came from Republicans. They were joined by Democrats Colleen Garry (D-Dracut), Alan Silvia (D-Fall River), and Jeff Turco (D-Winthrop).

Joining Democrats in voting yes were Minority Leader Brad Jones (R-North Reading), First Assistant Minority Leader Kimberly Ferguson (R-Holden), Third Assistant Minority Leader David Vieira (R-Falmouth), Hannah Kane (R-Shrewsbury), Donald Wong (R-Saugus), and unaffiliated Susannah Whipps (U-Athol).

The House rejected an amendment from Rep. Michael Soter (R-Bellingham) 129 to 30. The amendment would have extended the same shield protections to parents seeking to block access to reproductive and gender-affirming care for their minor children.

Joining Republicans again were Garry, Silvia, and Turco; also voting with Republicans were Francisco Paulino (D-Lawrence) and Dave Robertson (D-Tewksbury). Whipps joined Democrats in voting against it.

The House voted 130 to 26 for an amendment from Rep. Meg Kilcoyne (D-Clinton) with technical changes to the bill to ensure that the electronic medical records segmentation provision can be fully realized and operational without impacting clinical care within the Commonwealth and while preserving the intent of protecting patient privacy from harmful out-of-state actors.

Garry, Paulino, Silvia, and Turco again joined Republicans, and Whipps joined Democrats.