Pro-life leaders protested a radical abortion bill introduced in the New Jersey legislature that would allow abortion for any reason throughout all nine months of pregnancy, repeal all existing restrictions on abortion, and force taxpayers to fully fund the procedure.
A coalition of pro-life groups held “Day of Outrage” protests this week at the offices of New Jersey lawmakers who are sponsoring the legislation.
“The Reproductive Freedom Act is a human trafficker’s best friend,” Rev. Greg Quinlan, for Garden State Families, said in a statement.
“The Reproductive Freedom Act will allow anyone, of any age, regardless of their residency, to receive an abortion at the expense of New Jersey taxpayers,” he added. “New Jersey taxpayers will be paying for abortions for women victimized by human traffickers.”
According to the bill summary, the legislation (S3030/A4848) “specifies that a fertilized egg, embryo, or fetus may not be understood to have independent rights under any of the laws of this State.”
Gov. Phil Murphy (D) is backing the legislation. When the bill was introduced in October, Murphy said in a statement:
As access to health care and the right to choose are under attack at the federal level, we will support, defend, and protect reproductive rights here in New Jersey. The Reproductive Freedom Act will remove barriers to reproductive health, as well as expand access to contraception while reaffirming choice. Together, we stand unwavering in our commitment to work towards reproductive freedom for all New Jerseyans.
The governor’s press release included a statement by Kaitlyn Wojtowicz, vice president of Public Affairs, Planned Parenthood Action Fund of New Jersey:
The current health crisis has reinforced just how important it is to make sure everyone can get the care they need, including reproductive health care, no matter what. The Reproductive Freedom Act will ensure that everyone — including people of color, people in low income communities, immigrants, the uninsured and other marginalized groups — can make their own personal medical decisions with dignity.
The legislation would require all health insurance plans to provide coverage for abortions without imposing any “deductible, coinsurance, copayment, or other cost-sharing requirement.”
The Reproductive Freedom Act would also repeal New Jersey’s ban on partial birth abortions and its Parental Notification for Abortion Act, which requires minor girls to notify parents prior to having an abortion.
The Catholic Spirit, the official newspaper of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Metuchen, alerted as well that the legislation “eliminates the requirement for an autopsy to be conducted in a case where a fetal death occurs without medical attendance.”
“This strips away the rights of a newborn baby born alive and clearly opens the doors to infanticide,” the Spirit noted.
The summary states the bill “specifies that it is to be liberally construed to effectuate its purposes.”
The bill attempts, in effect, to eliminate the rights of New Jersey citizens and their future lawmakers to make any changes to the legislation or declare it void in any way at any time in the future.
“So, it will invalidate New Jersey’s conscience clause which has been in effect since 1974, which protects the right of individuals to refuse to perform or assist in abortion procedures,” Marie Tasy, executive director of New Jersey Right to Life, detailed in a Facebook Live video in October. “It will prevent future legislatures from passing laws, such as the Pain Capable Unborn Child Protection Act, the Born Alive Abortion Survivors Act and any other abortion regulation, which is now permitted under the 1992 Supreme Court Casey decision.”
The measure states that if the bill is ever challenged in court, the bill will always “prevail over the other, contradictory, provision of law, and such other provision of law is to be deemed amended, superseded, or repealed to the extent necessary to reconcile the inconsistency or conflict and ensure the law’s consistency with the provisions of the bill.”
Similarly, the language of the bill states that if any provision is ever ruled unconstitutional, “the remaining provisions of the bill, and the application of the provision at issue to all other persons or circumstances, will not be affected thereby.”
“This outrageous bill strips babies of their right to live, strips women of their right to safe healthcare, strips NJ healthcare workers and taxpayers of their rights of conscience not to participate in abortion, and even disenfranchises citizens from being able to rescind it in the future,” said Christine Flaherty, executive director of LIFENET. “This anti-freedom bill must be stopped in its tracks.”
Tasy said that “in reality, the legislation was introduced to subvert the will of New Jersey voters and future legislators, if Roe v. Wade is overturned.”
She explained further the impact of the legislation:
It means that it will be enshrined in law that living babies in the womb, who are capable of feeling pain, have no rights at any stage of pregnancy, even if they are viable and full term. All abortions including all late-term abortions will be allowed throughout the entire nine months of pregnancy for any reason, or no reason, and funded through our tax dollars of insurance premiums. The second point is that this bill will make abortion more dangerous and less safe for women regarding the performance of abortion.
The measure would eliminate existing regulations requiring only licensed physicians to perform abortions and those requiring that abortions be performed in a licensed hospital after 14 weeks of pregnancy.
Rev. Clenard H. Childress Jr., founder of BlackGenocide.org, said the bill “will further endanger women’s health and put their lives at risk.”
“This lowering of care for disproportionately African American women is typical of the callous abortion industry,” Childress asserted. “Abortion is the most performed surgery on women. No doctors?”
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