Shield states have laws or executive orders in place that protect patients who live in states with healthcare bans but who travel to receive that care from prosecution or investigation about the care received in the shield state. These laws also protect the clinicians who provide care.
Commonly, a shield law will:
- Set the policy that the state will not comply with court subpoenas from out of state for information about gender affirming care happening inside the state.
- This may apply to custody investigations and civil or criminal prosecution.
- If a provider loses their medical license in a ban state for providing banned care, a shield law may protect them from losing their licensing in the shield state
- The shield law may also apply to reproductive health medicine.
Shield laws can mean that ban states cannot get information about healthcare received in another state.
You may have heard about Texas sending documentation requests to clinics in other states asking for information on Texas patients. Shield laws support the clinics in refusing to provide any information.
Which States Are Shield States?
As of July 2024, 14 states plus Washington D.C. have shield laws in place. Two states have shield executive orders in place. We look to the Movement Advancement Project to stay up to date.
They are:
- Washington (a QueerDoc state!)
- Oregon (soon to be a QueerDoc state!)
- California (a QueerDoc state!)
- Arizona (executive order)
- New Mexico
- Colorado
- Minnesota
- Illinois
- New York
- Vermont
- Maine
- Massachussetts
- Rhode Island
- Connecticut
- New Jersey (executive order)
- Maryland
- the District of Columbia
If You Are In A Ban State And Need To Travel To Access Care
- there are resources to help with travel costs
- traveling to a shield state will protect you and your provider the most; but states without bans can provide care and there may be clinicians willing to provide care locally.
