Washington and Minnesota have both established themselves as shield states for patients seeking reproductive or gender-affirming care, with simultaneous laws signed in April.
Since the conservative Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade last year, threatening literally every aspect of medical privacy and exposing it to state or federal legislation, over a dozen states have banned abortion and as many states have passed laws prohibiting medical care for transgender youth and sometimes even adults.
The shield laws block courts and justices in Washington and Minnesota from responding to or enforcing warrants, subpoenas, extradition requests, or other court orders regarding reproductive or gender-affirming care. This is a direct response to states like Idaho, whose anti-trans law makes it a felony to provide gender-affirming care to a minor or to help a minor leave the state to access it. Texas has a similar law regarding anyone leaving Texas to obtain an abortion.
Governor Jay Inslee in Washington also signed a handful of related laws at the same time. Perhaps the most important of these is one increasing consumer protections regarding companies that collect data from period-tracking apps. It’s a concern that such apps could be used by abortion-banning states like Texas to identify people who aren’t comfortable disclosing their pregnancies. Abortion has been protected by law in Washington since 1991, and legal since 1970.
In Minnesota, Governor Tim Walz also banned conversion therapy for all youth, and established a fund to help abortion-seekers travel to the state. Over the previous summer, after the fall of Roe v. Wade, the state struck down most of its extant abortion restrictions, which has been null under the previous Supreme Court decision.
“Look, I don’t know how hard this concept is to understand,” Walz said. “When someone else is given basic rights, others don’t lose theirs. We’re not cutting a pie here. We’ve giving basic rights to every single Minnesotan.”