Medford committee advances ordinance to affirm access to gender-affirming and reproductive care

The Medford City Committee on Public Health and Community Safety voted April 1 to report out a revised ordinance that reaffirms access to gender-affirming care and reproductive health care and to send the measure to the City Council’s regular meeting on April 8.

The committee accepted a package of edits from the city’s outside counsel (KP Law) and approved several committee amendments that (1) removed a contested definition clause about how gender identity may be demonstrated, (2) kept the draft’s use of the term “city agent” while adding “officials” and removing a clause that would have applied the ordinance to recipients of city grants, awards or appropriations, and (3) added a purpose paragraph stating the city will not aid enforcement of another state’s laws that seek to deny bodily autonomy. Councillor Tsang read the added paragraph aloud at the meeting: “Further, it is contrary to the City of Medford’s public policy to participate in the enforcement of another state's civil or criminal law when that law seeks to deny an individual's right to bodily autonomy and criminalize a person's…