ALBANY — State lawmakers have approved a new bill to further restrict health providers from sharing information about reproductive care to out-of-state authorities, part of a legislative push to make New York a sanctuary for abortions, gender-affirming care and other procedures now illegal in some states.
On Monday, as the state Assembly voted on hundreds of consequential pieces of legislation in their last few days of session, lawmakers approved a bill that prohibits state authorities from enforcing out-of-state legal action penalizing someone for receiving or providing an abortion or gender-affirming care for trans people, like hormone prescription or surgery, defining those acts as ‘legally protected health activities.’
It blocks state authorities from taking custody of a child if their parents are seeking or providing legally protected health activities, either for themselves or their child, and allows parents to establish their child as a New York state resident, subject to the state’s permissive laws on gender-based healthcare for children, immediately upon bringing them to the state.
It explicitly blocks state courts from extraditing anyone facing charges related to these health activities in New York to other states or countries, and bars the courts from enforcing out-of-state subpoenas for information or testimony related to them.
It also moves to protect New York-based providers licensure, isolating them from out-of-state disciplinary actions based on their provision of abortion or gender-affirming care, and moves to block insurance companies from penalizing providers or revoking coverage for related health procedures.
This comes as 19 states in the nation have passed laws that restrict or ban abortion, the result of the 2022 Supreme Court ruling to overturn the constitutional right to abortion.
New York officials have sought to retain access to abortion for its residents and out-of-state mothers — the state shields providers who send medication abortion pills to tele-health patients in other states, and Gov. Kathy C. Hochul has made very public her support and intent to defend a Capitol Region provider being facing criminal charges in Louisiana for providing abortion pills to a young girl in that state via the mail.
This bill as passed Monday has the support of the New York ACLU.