§ 4550.Admissibility of evidence related to legally protected health activity.

New York has passed several laws in recent years shielding people who provide, assist with, or receive reproductive health care and gender-affirming care that is legal in the state, even when other states have moved to penalize the same conduct. CPLR 4550 extends that shield into the evidence rules. Evidence that a party engaged in legally protected health activity, as defined by the criminal procedure law, cannot be offered against that party to show the party committed any wrongdoing, civil, criminal, professional, or otherwise, based on having engaged in that activity.

The statute carves out one clear exception. A party can still offer that evidence in a proceeding that sounds in tort or contract, is actionable under New York law in a similar way, and was brought by the person who received the reproductive health care or gender-affirming care (or that person's legal representative). In other words, the shield protects providers and participants from being second-guessed over the underlying legality of the care, but it does not block the patient's own tort or contract claims arising from that care, such as a malpractice suit against the provider who delivered it.

The rule fits into a broader legislative effort to insulate New York providers and patients from out-of-state legal exposure tied to reproductive and gender-affirming care, and it works alongside related shield provisions elsewhere in state law.