Interstate Travel for Health Care
Current understanding
Federal legislative efforts have been introduced to codify a right to travel across state lines to obtain health care services, responding to a landscape in which certain procedures (including reproductive and gender-affirming care) are legal in some states but restricted in others. The Freedom to Travel for Health Care Act of 2026 (S4701) is the current vehicle in the 119th Congress, referred to the Senate Judiciary Committee. No federal statute yet establishes this protection; status is at the introduction stage.
Evidence log
- 2026-06-24 — To prohibit a REMS-certified provider from prescribing mifepristone without an in-person visit and a medical license in the State in which the patient resides, and for other purposes.: cross-connection with mifepristone-rems-prescribing-requirements: By requiring in-state licensure of the prescriber, HR9421 restricts cross-state provision of medication abortion and intersects with interstate travel-for-care policy. (novelty: 2)
- 2026-06-24 — Federal Workforce Reproductive Rights Protection Act: cross-connection with federal-workforce-reproductive-rights-protection-act: Both address protections around access to reproductive/health care services across jurisdictional or employment-status lines. (novelty: 3)
- 2026-06-24 — Let Doctors Provide Reproductive Health Care Act: cross-connection with fertility-treatment-access: S4879 (Let Doctors Provide Reproductive Health Care Act) complements S4701 (Freedom to Travel for Health Care Act) — one shields providers of reproductive care, the other shields patients traveling for such care, forming a paired federal protection framework. (novelty: 2)
- 2026-06-08 — Freedom to Travel for Health Care Act of 2026: cross-connection with fertility-treatment-access: Interstate travel protections directly affect patients seeking fertility and reproductive services in states other than their state of residence. (novelty: 2)