Healy signed an updated shield law on Thursday, which prohibits state and local authorities from cooperating with federal and out-of-state investigations into abortions and sex changes, the latter dubbed “gender-affirming care” by the political left. The new protections further block the disclosure of sensitive data, such as a physician’s name.
“Massachusetts will always be a state where patients can access high-quality health care and providers are able to do their jobs without government interference,” Healey said in a statement.
She continued:
From the moment Roe was overturned, we stepped up to pass strong protections for patients and providers, and with President Trump and his allies continuing their assaults on health care, we’re taking those protections to the next level. No one is going to prevent the people of Massachusetts from getting the health care they need.
The updated shield law builds on a law Massachusetts lawmakers passed in July 2022 following the Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision, which ended the invented constitutional right to abortion. That shield law was the first of its kind and created protections for medical professionals who operate in Massachusetts but have patients who live in states where abortion or sex change drugs for minors are restricted.
A resource from the Massachusetts Attorney General’s Office notes that the shield law protects telehealth abortion providers in the state, “regardless of where the patient is located at the time the legally protected health care is provided so long as: the provider is physically located in Massachusetts at the time the care is provided, the provider is licensed under Massachusetts law, and the care provided meets applicable professional standards of care under Massachusetts law.”
Several other blue states have passed shield laws, like California and New York, enabling abortionists to send abortion pills into states with abortion restrictions and undercutting those states’ efforts to protect the unborn.
These shield laws have begun facing legal challenges, and Republican attorneys general have asked the federal government to intervene, calling them “blatant attempts to interfere with States’ ability to enforce criminal laws within their borders and disrupt our constitutional structure.”
Katherine Hamilton is a political reporter for Breitbart News. You can follow her on X @thekat_hamilton.
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