SAINT PAUL, Minn. – Today, the Minnesota House passed HF 366, the Reproductive Freedom Defense Act (RFDA). The bill protects the privacy and rights of persons receiving or providing reproductive health care in the state against legal attacks and criminal penalties imposed in other states.
Rep. Liz Olson (DFL – Duluth) voted for the bill.
“The fall of Roe v. Wade has resulted in a wave of unjust and inhumane laws across the country restricting abortion rights. However, in Minnesota we value the fundamental rights of everyone to access reproductive health care without any interference from politicians,” Rep. Olson said. “The Reproductive Freedom Defense Act is crucial to protecting these rights and ensuring patients and healthcare providers are safe from any legal backlash or punishment anti-abortion activists elsewhere are looking to impose.”
The RFDA modifies existing Minnesota laws – including those regarding medical privacy, licensure, extradition, and prosecutorial procedure – to reflect the reality that some states consider reproductive health care a crime while Minnesota explicitly does not. The bill specifies the law governing the release of health records excludes out-of-state subpoenas and court orders for records related to abortion, contraception, and other reproductive healthcare, preventing disclosure laws from being weaponized for prosecution in other states for healthcare protected under Minnesota law. Further, the bill ensures that having discipline or a conviction in another state for providing reproductive health care that is lawful in Minnesota is not cause for discipline or withholding of licensure by Minnesota’s Board of Medical Practice.
The bill also protects Minnesotans from laws – such as those passed in Texas – that encourage citizens to sue individuals for providing or helping someone obtain abortion care that is legal in Minnesota. Finally, the RFDA excludes reproductive health care related charges from our extradition act so Minnesota will not deliver a person charged with the crime of providing abortion or other reproductive care to another state under an extradition order, and protects people from being arrested in Minnesota under such out-of-state laws.
The House passed the bill on a vote of 68-62. In the Minnesota Senate, the bill currently awaits action by the Judiciary Committee.