Maryland Senate approves legal protections for gender-affirming care

ANNAPOLIS, Md. (AP) — Gender-affirming treatment in Maryland would be protected from criminal and civil actions brought by other states under a measure approved Tuesday by the state Senate.

The Democrat-controlled Senate voted 33-13 for the measure that would provide the same legal protection offered by the state for abortions. It now goes to the House, where a similar bill has been introduced.

The measure protects medical records of patients in Maryland from criminal, civil and administrative actions relating to gender-affirming care, if records were sought in investigations started in another state.

For example, a judge would not be able to order someone in Maryland to provide testimony or produce documents in a case where prosecution or investigations are pending in another state. Maryland enacted a law to protect information relating to abortion procedures last year, in response to other states that banned or restricted abortions.

“This legislation simply adds gender-affirming treatment to what is already in statute as legally protected health care, legally protected health care that we placed into statute last year to ensure that women that need abortions can have privacy in their own medical records from being transferred out of state or being accessed by out of state entities,” said Sen. Clarence Lam, a Democrat who is a physician at Johns Hopkins.

<bsp-list-loadmore data-module="" class=«PageListStandardB» data-gtm-region=«READ MORE» data-gtm-topic=«No Value» data-show-loadmore=«true» data-gtm-modulestyle=«List B»> <bsp-custom-headline custom-headline=«div»> READ MORE </bsp-custom-headline> <bsp-custom-headline custom-headline=«div»> Nebraska’s new law limiting abortion and trans healthcare is argued before the