Massachusetts just sent a powerful message to the rest of the country: here, your right to reproductive and gender-affirming care is non-negotiable.
On August 7, 2025, Governor Maura Healey signed the Shield Act 2.0, a sweeping update to the state’s already strong protections. The law expands safeguards for both patients and providers, setting a new national standard for privacy, access, and safety in health care.
What Shield Act 2.0 Does
- Protects patient and provider privacy: Sensitive information, including provider names, can no longer be disclosed or weaponized. Prescriptions can be issued under a clinic or practice name instead of the individual provider’s name, reducing the risk of harassment or targeting.
- Blocks out-of-state interference: If another state, federal agency, or outside entity tries to target someone for providing or receiving abortion or gender-affirming care in Massachusetts, state and local officials are prohibited from helping. This includes ignoring subpoenas, warrants, or other demands from hostile jurisdictions.
- Ensures emergency abortion access: The law makes it clear that abortion must be available without delay when medically necessary. No extra approvals. No additional hoops. Just care when it’s needed most.
Why This Matters for Trans People
For transgender residents and those traveling to Massachusetts for care, this law offers something rare in today’s political climate: certainty. It guarantees that gender-affirming health care will remain accessible, legal, and protected, even as many other states move to restrict or criminalize it.
At the signing ceremony, Healey was joined by advocates from Reproductive Equity Now, Health Imperatives, Fenway Health, the ACLU of Massachusetts, and medical professionals from Brigham and Women’s Hospital. Dallas Ducar, CEO of Fenway Health, emphasized the law’s life-saving potential: “This commonwealth has made something crystal clear: We will not back down… a law that will save lives, including my own and so many other trans people.”
Governor Healey underscored the law’s core principle: “In Massachusetts, you have the freedom, you have a choice, you have the free will to make health care decisions for yourself and your family. I think that’s so fundamental.”
A National Outlier in Access
Even after Roe v. Wade was overturned in 2022, abortion remained legal in Massachusetts up to 24 weeks and beyond in cases of fatal fetal anomalies or risks to the pregnant person’s health. With Shield Act 2.0, those protections are now fortified, and gender-affirming care is explicitly defended.
Massachusetts’ commitment goes beyond policy. It is also home to some of the best-ranked hospitals in the country and has been named one of the top states to raise a family and deliver a baby. For trans people, that means more than just medical access; it means an environment actively working to protect your rights.
Bottom Line
Shield Act 2.0 turns Massachusetts into one of the safest places in America for reproductive and transgender health care. For patients, it means knowing you can get the care you need without fear of being targeted. For providers, it means being able to do your job without looking over your shoulder.
This law is not the end of the fight, but it is a milestone worth celebrating.
