Legislation approved during Tuesday’s special state Assembly session will provide greater protections to New York doctors prescribing medication-assisted abortion medication to patients in states that heavily regulate abortions.

A.1709/S.1066 provides protections to health service providers who perform health activities legal in New York state, like abortion. The legislation was passed 39-22 in the state Senate in late May, largely along party lines, with Sen. George Borrello, R-Sunset Bay, voting against it.

Assemblyman Andrew Goodell, R-Jamestown, also voted against the legislation during Tuesday’s special Assembly session. The bill will now go to Gov. Kathy Hochul for her signature before becoming law.

“Don’t we want other states to respect our decisions?” Goodell asked. “We should respect their jurisdiction as well. That road goes both ways. For that reason I cannot support this because I believe it is an unconstitutional attempt to allow New York positions to knowingly and intentionally violate the laws of other states with impunity.”

Specifically, the legislation prevents the governor from recognizing any demand, except as required by federal law, for the extradition of a person charged with any legally protected health activity, unless the other state’s governor alleges in writing that the New York practitioner was physically present in the other state at the time of the alleged crime and later fled the state. It also prevents a police officer from arresting any person for performing any legally protected health activity in New York state and prevents any government employee or entity or other person acting on behalf of state or local government from cooperating with any individual or out-of-state agency or department regarding any legally protected health activity occurring in New York, or using any time and/or resources on an investigation or court case initiated in another state that aims to impose civil or criminal liability or professional sanctions on a person or entity for any health activity legally protected in New York state. Authorities would have the right to investigate any alleged violations of reproductive health services in accordance with New York laws as long as the information isn’t shared with an out-of-state agency or other individual. The new law would require compliance with any court-issued subpoena or warrant in connection with any civil, criminal or professional sanctions investigation that is not related to any legally protected health activity.

New York courts would be barred from issuing subpoenas in connection with an out-of-state proceeding relating to any legally protected health activity that occurred in New York state and creates an exception to the subpoena rule for patients who receive reproductive health services and begin an out-of-state proceeding. State courts would also be barred from aiding in the production of any out- of-state deposition requests in relation to any health activity legal in New York.

“Other states place a much greater value on the unborn child,” Goodell said. “Other states take a view that the unborn child probably needs the protection of the state and they limit abortion. Sometimes they only allow abortion until there’s a heartbeat and once there’s a heartbeat they say, ‘You know, there ought to be a special condition.’ We have always over the decades, over the centuries, acknowledged that if somebody who is in New York violates another state’s criminal laws and does so knowingly and intentionally the other state can extradite the person. This bill is astounding because it says a New Yorker using telehealth can violate another state’s criminal laws and do so with impunity. That’s wrong. We need to respect the sovereignity, independence and the right of other states to pass their own criminal laws.”

Medical malpractice insurers would not be allowed to take action against any health care provider for performing reproductive health services that are legal in New York on someone who is from out of state. The state Insurance Law will be changed to require that every policy providing hospital, surgical or medical coverage and which offers maternity coverage also provide coverage for legally protected health activity and prevents any legally protected health activity from being subject to any annual deductibles or coinsurance, including co-payments, unless the policy is a high deductible health plan as defined in the Internal Revenue Code. Every insurance policy that provides hospital, surgical, or medical coverage and which offers maternity coverage also has to provide coverage for legally protected health activity, including abortions, though it allows a group policy that provides hospital, surgical, or medical expense coverage to a religious employer to exclude coverage for abortions as long as it follows certain procedures.

Lastly, A.1709/S.1066 amends the state Education Law to prevent reproductive health care performed by a health care practitioner acting in their scope of practice from constituting professional misconduct or a violation of rules governing revocation, suspension, annulment, penalty or disciplinary action.

“Nothing in this bill would handcuff another state from legally prosecuting a phsycian who is negligent or who actually does commit a crime,” said Assemblywoman Karines Reyes, D-Bronx. “We are just affirming in New York state that we protect the rights of physicians to perform legally protected health activities. In this case it means providing services to women who in other states may not have options because they were taken away from them. The New York Academy of Family Physicians really requested this. There is a cohort of doctors, a very small one, that already provides these services and they’re fearful their licenses are in jeopardy and we just want to assure them that in New York we protect them.”

The state debate is part of a larger national debate over access to drugs like mifepristone and misoprostol. Women seeking to end their pregnancies in the first 10 weeks without more invasive surgical abortion can take the drugs, with the federal Food and Drug Administration easing terms of mifepristone’s use over the years, including allowing it to be sent through the mail in states that allow access. A federal court challenge to The challenge to mifepristone access is the first abortion controversy to reach the U.S. Supreme Court since the court overturned Roe v. Wade last year and allowed more than a dozen states to effectively ban abortion outright.

About 40% of all abortions in the U.S. are now done through medication. Eighteen states have bans on telemedicine abortions in place, according to national groups on both sides of the debate. They include Arizona, Indiana, Nebraska and North Carolina.