With the continued attacks on abortion and transgender healthcare across the country, the Vermont Legislature acted definitively to protect patients seeking these vital health care services and the healthcare professionals providing them in Vermont. I was a leader in these efforts, working during the off-session to draft legislation and then shepherd it through the Senate Health and Welfare Committee. In order to ensure comprehensive protections, we passed both S.37/Act 15 and H.89/Act 14, known as “shield bills,” to ensure that medical providers and patients cannot be blocked or punished for providing or receiving this legally protected health care in Vermont.
Acts 14 and 15 define “legally protected health care activity” to include reproductive health care services and gender-affirming health care services and reaffirms that access to such services is a legal right in Vermont. The legislation declares interference with legally protected health care activity to be against the public policy of Vermont and shields providers and patients from litigation seeking to interfere with these established health care services. The legislation creates various protections and requirements, including:
- requires health insurance plans and Medicaid to cover gender-affirming health care services and abortion-related services
- permits pharmacies and colleges & universities to make non-prescription emergency contraception and other contraceptives available by vending machine
- allows pharmacists to prescribe emergency contraception
- establishes a new “unfair and deceptive act” regarding limited-services “crisis pregnancy centers” to prohibit false and misleading advertising about services
- provides medical malpractice insurance, abusive litigation, and professional license protections for health care providers
- establishes new unprofessional conduct standards related to willfully providing inaccurate health or medical information to a patient
- prohibits assistance in investigations, court summons, or extradition in or to other states related to what is legally protected health care in Vermont
- establishes a civil offense for interference with access to a health care facility that is modeled after the federal Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act
- requires Vermont’s public institutions of higher education to report on their students’ access to reproductive and gender-affirming health care services
- limits disclosure of patient information regarding legally protected health care
- permits providers of legally protected health care to participate in the Safe at Home address confidentiality program
These crucial bills come a year after the devastating U.S. Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade and on the heels of the overwhelming passage of Article 22, the Vermont Reproductive Liberty Constitutional Amendment in November 2022, the resolution supporting access to gender affirming health care in May 2022, and the passage of the Freedom of Choice Act in May 2019. I have long been an advocate for reproductive and gender justice and will continue to do all I can to ensure that abortion and gender affirming care remain accessible and legally protected in Vermont.
Ruth for Vermont 