After years of efforts by advocates pushing for a “shield law” to protect both individuals seeking transgender and reproductive healthcare and those who provide it, the New Jersey state Senate and General Assembly health committees have advanced a bill that would do exactly that.
The legislation continues to make its way toward a vote later this week by both chambers of the Legislature after the Senate Health, Human Services and Senior Citizens Committee and the General Assembly Health Committee cleared the bill on May 11 and May14, respectively. The bill was referred to the Assembly’s appropriations committee and was moved by senators for a second reading.
The bill “changes everything,” said Simone Kraus, a 69-year-old trans woman who lives in Vernon Township, Sussex County. “It transitions my reality from temporary political goodwill into permanent legislative bedrock.”
The story of the bill starts in 2023 when former Gov. Phil Murphy signed an executive order protecting trans individuals and those seeking reproductive health services in New Jersey. Now those protections are expected to be codified into law, making the right to healthcare and privacy no longer dependent on the election cycle. Executive orders are not laws and can easily be rescinded by another gubernatorial administration.
In early 2026, a similar measure was not brought to the floor for a vote in either chamber by the end of the legislative session, which emboldened advocates to restart the process. This time, they say, things are going much better and call this a much-needed win in a political climate that has been looking quite bleak for LGBTQ people in the U.S.
Senate Majority Leader M. Teresa Ruiz, a Democrat representing District 29 (Essex and Hudson), who is a sponsor of the bill, urged her fellow senators to vote yes for the well-being of future generations who may one day be grateful for lifesaving care to which they otherwise would not have access.
Senate President Nicholas P. Scutari, D-22 (Somerset and Union), another one of the bill’s sponsors, said: “By shielding patients and doctors from efforts to undermine their bodily autonomy and medical expertise, we are strengthening New Jersey’s commitment to accessible, safe, and evidence-based reproductive healthcare services.”
Alongside shielding both patients and healthcare providers, the bill would strengthen protections against interfering with reproductive services.
The bill states that a person would face prosecution for attempting to injure or for injuring someone seeking reproductive health services; obstructing access to reproductive health facilitie; and intimidating, threatening, or coercing a patient, volunteer, or provider involved with reproductive health services, or attempting to do so. The bill goes on to state further bolstered protections against damaging, defacing, or destroying the property of someone involved with reproductive healthcare; or causing someone emotional, financial, professional, or personal injury or suffering for seeking such care.
The creation of this part of the measure was done in response to growing protests outside abortion providers such as Planned Parenthood in New Jersey and in other states. The legislation aims to protect those seeking a termination of their pregnancy and to safeguard healthcare workers who provide the service.
“No one should fear that accessing and providing lifesaving healthcare in New Jersey will result in legal retaliation from another state.”
The other main way the bill amends state law is by furthering patient privacy. Patients who come from other states in which there is no legal abortion access will be protected by New Jersey law, so patients will be protected once they return to their home state.
“No one should fear that accessing and providing lifesaving healthcare in New Jersey will result in legal retaliation from another state,” Garden State Equality Director of Advocacy and Organizing Lauren Albrecht said in a statement.
Brielle Winslow-Majette, GSE’s acting executive director, stated in reaction to the Senate committee hearing: “In the words of the many people who testified: No one should fear that accessing and providing medically necessary, clinically proven, lifesaving healthcare in New Jersey will result in legal retaliation.
“This bill is the next step to ensure New Jerseyans’ right to exercise our bodily autonomy, and we are grateful the Senate health committee agreed. We are confident … the Legislature will swiftly pass this critical legislation,” Winslow-Majette said.
In addition to abortion access, Planned Parenthood is known for providing gender-affirming care. The bill would protect the healthcare information of minors who have received such care from “intrusive” subpoenas.
On May 13, CBS News reported that NYU Langone was issued a subpoena from the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the North District of Texas demanding information of minors who have received gender-affirming care from the healthcare system since 2020.
RWJBarnabas announced that it will no longer be accepting new trans patients who are minors, according to a New Jersey Monitor article.
A more local development for New Jersey residents is that RWJBarnabas announced that it will no longer be accepting new trans patients who are minors, according to a New Jersey Monitor article. That healthcare system, one of the largest in New Jersey, insists existing minor patients can still access care, according to the article.
So although there has not yet been a subpoena issued here in New Jersey like the one by the U.S. Attorney in Texas, the trans community in the Garden State still faces threats.
The bill protects the privacy of minors in the state, clarifying that the measure does protect their rights. Advocates hope this will prevent healthcare systems from folding to pressure from the Trump administration to stop gender-affirming care in exchange for keeping their funding.
Jane Buchanan, a longtime trans activist who works with the Transgender Rights Coalition of New Jersey (TRC-NJ), cited privacy concerns for her trans son in light of the subpoena brought by the U.S. Attorney in Texas.
“The original bill keeps safe his private personal medical information that states and the federal government are trying to seize from people for no other reason than that they are trans. By shielding New Jersey healthcare providers from ideologically driven and discriminatory attacks by other states and the federal government, trans people like my son will be able to continue to get the essential care that is their fundamental right. Without this bill we risk New Jersey doctors stopping providing care and even leaving the state,” she said.
Buchanan also expressed concern about more New Jersey healthcare systems dialing back gender-affirming care if there is no meaningful action taken.
Kraus, who also has written the memoir Just a Different Wrapping, said that with the bill, she no longer has “to fear that the medical network keeping me healthy will be stripped away. By protecting the licenses of my doctors and endocrinologists from out-of-state liability, this bill ensures my continuity of care. It recognizes my healthcare, not as a political debate, but as a fundamental right.”
Like Buchanan, Kraus also shared how the bill alleviates her privacy concerns: “Most importantly, this bill builds a massive legal firewall between my private life and intrusive government overreach. I have watched in horror as hostile agencies used sweeping subpoenas to track transgender people through pharmacy records. (The bill) draws a strict line in the sand. It legally prohibits New Jersey pharmacies and providers from turning over my prescription histories or medical records to out-of-state or unfounded federal data sweeps.”
Kraus emphasized how this “bill means I no longer have to live at the mercy of the next election cycle. By replacing a vulnerable executive order with a permanent, robust shield law, New Jersey is declaring that my identity, my body, and my medical data belong to me alone.
“Because of (the bill),” Kraus continued, “I can finally stop holding my breath, knowing that, as someone born and raised here and having spent a lifetime in New Jersey, I can live out my days in New Jersey without the terrifying thought of ever having to flee to another state just for my healthcare.”
Chayce Alston is a 33-year-old transgender man from Matawan, Monmouth County, who shared how the bill makes him feel safer. “Despite the fear that’s being instilled on a federal level, the fact that I still have safety in my state is everything. … And I think that’s what’ll keep our community strong; at the end, when we do feel like we have that support from where it matters. You know, even if we have to fight for it, you know, we know that there’s somebody that has our back,” Alston said.
Albrecht responded to these concerns of privacy by stating: “In light of the federal criminal subpoena of NYU Langone’s records, we worked overtime this week (May 10-16) with our coalition of senators, assemblymembers, policymakers, and activists to expand the final version of the legislation to include protections against unfounded federal subpoenas.”
The bill originally included language specifically referring to gender-affirming care, which is absent from the current version. But lawyers who have contributed to drafting the current version are unfazed by lawmakers defining gender-affirming care as being a category under reproductive healthcare, according to reporting by the Monitor.
Moreover, trans people in the state interviewed by Out in Jersey also find the language change to be inconsequential. While Kraus said that “the mere mention of gender-affirming care or trans identity makes the opposing party’s (the Republican Party’s) head explode,” she said she still feels confident the bill will protect her and other trans individuals in New Jersey.
“Transition-related care is not experimental or political; it is an evidence-based medical practice recognized by every major medical organization in the United States. … (The bill) ensures New Jersey law reflects this medical consensus.”
The introduction of the bill, which advocates hope will be codified into law soon, is a relief for the LGBTQ community in New Jersey. It is one win, they say, in a time of many losses and a sign that New Jersey will not be caving to pressure from the Trump administration anytime soon.
