BOSTON—The shortage of primary care physicians and specialists, including in rural swaths of Massachusetts where residents also face transportation obstacles, could be alleviated by Massachusetts joining an interstate agreement, under legislation pitched to the Joint Committee on Public Health Thursday.

Amid rising attacks on LGBTQ health care rights, the committee was assured that Massachusetts’ shield law strengthening abortion and gender-affirming care protections, passed in the wake of the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, would not be jeopardized by entering into the compact.

Nearly 40 states, including all of the New England states except Massachusetts, are part of the Interstate Medical Licensure Compact that launched in 2017, Rep. Smitty Pignatelli said at the committee hearing.

Pignatelli’s proposal (H 2256) creates a pathway for Massachusetts to participate in the compact, which provides a streamlined process for eligible physicians to apply for and obtain licenses to practice, including through telemedicine, in other states. Regardless of where doctors are located, they will need to adhere to the care standards in Massachusetts while practicing here, Pignatelli said, asking his colleagues to take a “serious look” at the bill.

“We are a world leader in education, health care and medical care – and people from all across the globe come to Massachusetts for that care,” Pignatelli said. “I think this compact would enhance those opportunities from the Cape to the Berkshires and everywhere in between.”

Sen. Julian Cyr, co-chair of the committee, said he’s hesitant about interstate compacts at a time when “extremist politicians” elsewhere are seeking to interfere with health care options for LGBTQ individuals. But Rep. Aaron Saunders assured him that Massachusetts’ protections would remain intact.

“The basic tenet of the compact does not allow any other jurisdiction to determine the standard of medicine in the commonwealth of Massachusetts – full stop,” Saunders, who signed onto Pignatelli’s bill in July, told Cyr at the hearing. “The protections in the compact, I would submit, actually complement the very strong shield laws that the Legislature passed very recently.”

Saunders said the compact would enable his Massachusetts-based doctor to have a virtual appointment with an elderly woman who lives seven miles away, just over the Connecticut border, who has difficulty reaching the office in person.

“My doctor is not licensed in the state of Connecticut,” Saunders said. “In this day and age, it sounds somewhat absurd to say seven miles is going to get in the way of folks being able to access high-quality medicine.”