This bill updates and expands Massachusetts’ shield law. The law strengthens protections for providers and patients by prohibiting state agencies and law enforcement from cooperating with outside state or federal investigations into reproductive or gender-affirming health care provided in Massachusetts; limiting the collection and sharing of electronic health information related to reproductive or gender-affirming health care and patient data; allowing providers to list their practice’s name on abortion and gender-affirming medications, rather than their own name; excluding certain reproductive and gender-affirming medications from the state’s drug monitoring programs; limiting third-party access to related medical records; reaffirming that “health care professionals are free to provide legal care services in Massachusetts;” increasing license protections and expands protections against disciplinary actions for providers; forbidding insurance companies from discriminating against or penalizing such providers; protecting attorneys licensed in the state from removal or discipline for advising or representing clients on matters pertaining to reproductive or gender-affirming care; explicitly mandating that acute care hospitals provide stabilizing health services, including emergency abortion care; and more.

This FY 26 budget bill appropriates $2 million to the Planned Parenthood League of Massachusetts to support continuing access to sexual and reproductive health care and community needs amid federal Medicaid cuts. This budget bill also allocates $1.98 million for grants to support improvements in reproductive health access, infrastructure and security, including grants to local abortion funds. The budget also includes $6.7 million to enhance comprehensive family planning services previously funded by Title X ; $500,000 for a public service campaign to promote awareness about the right to receive a 12-month contraceptive supply; $150,000 for an abortion legal hotline.

The Massachusetts Department of Public Health’s (DPH) Board of Registration in Nursing approved emergency amendments to codify into regulation provisions in the 2022 shield law that protect nurses from disqualification from licensure and from Board discipline for providing, or assisting in providing, reproductive health care services in Massachusetts.

The Massachusetts Department of Public Health’s (DPH) Board of Registration in Nursing approved emergency amendments to codify into regulation provisions in the 2022 shield law that protect nurses from disqualification from licensure and from Board discipline for providing, or assisting in providing, reproductive health care services in Massachusetts.

This FY25 budget bill appropriates $500,000 for FY25 for a public information campaign to educate and promote awareness to pharmacies and the public about individual’s eligibility to receive a 12-month prescription for contraceptives in the commonwealth. It includes a provision that allows registered practitioners to dispense over-the-counter oral contraception to MassHealth patients. Further, this bill includes a provision that requires insurance coverage for standard fertility preservation services including but not limited to procurement, cryopreservation and storage of gametes, embryos, or other reproductive tissue, when the enrollee has been diagnosed with a medical or genetic condition that may directly or indirectly cause infertility.