As Republican lawmakers have pushed restrictions on abortion and gender-affirming care in recent months, Democratic-led states have increasingly responded by passing so-called shield laws to protect people who undergo such care against the possibility they could one day face prosecution.
Nearly a dozen states – including Washington state, Colorado, New Mexico and Minnesota – have passed shield laws, and several governors have issued executive orders with similar protections, according to the Guttmacher Institute, a research and policy organization focused on sexual and reproductive health that supports abortion rights, and advocacy group Lawyers for Good Government.
So far, according to those groups, there are no known instances of law enforcement reaching across state lines to target citizens who traveled for such treatment – and the restrictive laws typically target doctors and others who provide such services. The laws also serve to protect patients in the event civil actions suits are filed against them or if officials from their home state try to subpoena or extradite them to face potential charges for accessing treatment in another state.
But advocates see the shield laws, which typically require officials to not cooperate with out-of-state criminal inquiries under the protected health services, as a way to prepare for and protect against an uncertain political climate – despite questions over their enforceability.
“Shield laws are the current kind of attempt to imagine where this continuing unfolding kind of chaotic legal landscape is going to end up, but the truth is, we just don’t know yet how they’re going to work in practice,” said Kelly Baden, the vice president for public policy at Guttmacher Institute.
There are few restrictions on abortion in Colorado, where Democrats control the main levers of power, but the procedure is…
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