In the final days of the Oregon Legislative session, which concluded on Sunday, legislators passed House Bill 2002, expanding coverage of gender-affirming care services and providing protections for providers of both gender-affirming and reproductive health care, including abortion.
Oregon Health & Science University members from across the institution were at the forefront of advocacy for this bill. OHSU partnered with Oregon's leading advocacy organizations Planned Parenthood Advocates of Oregon, Basic Rights Oregon and the Oregon Medical Association among others to support the passage of this legislation.
“We are so proud of the OHSU members who supported the development and passage of House Bill 2002,” said OHSU President Danny Jacobs, M.D., M.P.H., FACS. “We are a community of healers dedicated to expanding and protecting access to essential health care.”
House Bill 2002 requires coverage of gender-affirming care services by Oregon’s health insurers and provides licensure and public records protections for providers who might be targeted by policies or legal action in other states.
In addition to the efforts of OHSU’s Government Relations team to advocate for House Bill 2002, dozens of OHSU members offered their expertise in written and committee testimony, as well as in the workgroup that crafted the legislation over the last year. Hundreds more joined health care providers from across Oregon in signing on to a letter of support for the bill.
OHSU members who provided testimony and shared their expertise on behalf of OHSU have included Christina Milano, M.D., who serves as the Transgender Health Program medical director; Amy Penkin, LCSW, clinical program manager of the Transgender Health Program; and Maria Rodriguez, M.D., M.P.H., director of the OHSU Center for Reproductive Health Equity.
“At this critical juncture for our country, [House Bill 2002] gives Oregon a clear path to galvanize a commitment to protect Oregonians in accessing safe, evidence-based care for some of their most personal and human needs, and to protect the providers who deliver that care,” Milano told the House Committee on Health Care and Behavioral Health.
Rodriguez, who along with Penkin and Milano, represented OHSU on House Speaker Dan Rayfield’s reproductive health access workgroup that developed the bill, told the committee there is fear among the dedicated clinicians who provide this care every day.
“Laws criminalizing abortion in other states have made health care providers fearful to provide these services for fear of losing their licensure and/or malpractice coverage,” Rodriguez said in her testimony. “Many states are also considering legislation that would also promote extradition of abortion providers caring for their citizens in states where abortion is legal. This bill would protect Oregon providers from such legislative harassment and support ongoing access to abortion care.”
Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek is expected to sign the legislation into law.