Recent Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy (D) on Wednesday announced laws to expand reproductive health care coverage within the state, with a specific eye on abortion access ― and other states’ efforts to curtail it.
Speaking from behind a pink placard reading “Ensuring Reproductive Freedom,” Murphy rolled out a handful of proposals that construct on the Freedom of Reproductive Selection Act, which codified the proper to an abortion into state law earlier this yr.
“In the approaching weeks, a right-wing majority on the U.S. Supreme Court likely will take a wrecking ball to 50 years of its own precedent, and for the very first time in American history overturn a call as a way to diminish our rights,” the governor said, explaining the impetus for his proposals.
“Without access, rights mean nothing,” he added.
Murphy then urged the state Assembly to pass laws expanding the Freedom of Reproductive Selection Act, particularly in search of to:
- Mandate that insurance policy in Recent Jersey cover abortion with no out-of-pocket-costs.
- Expand the variety of potential abortion providers to incorporate advanced practice nurses, midwives and physician assistants.
- Establish a Reproductive Health Access Fund to expand and protect reproductive health care providers.
- Protect medical providers and patients who provide or receive abortion care within the state from legal actions initiated by states who’ve outlawed abortion.
That last point is a very interesting development. While Republican-led states across the country have enacted abortion bans geared toward difficult Roe v. Wade, some, like Texas, have gone further.
In Texas, any private citizen is entitled to gather $10,000 if they bring about a successful lawsuit against someone who performed ― or helped a lady obtain ― an abortion after cardiac activity is detected within the fetus, which might occur as early as six weeks into pregnancy. That may even include driving the girl to the airport to receive health care in one other state.
Murphy didn’t describe intimately how he intends to shield Recent Jersey’s medical providers from complying with legal motion that originates in one other state, but he was adamant concerning the commitment.
“Let me be clear,” he said in an announcement after the speech. “Recent Jersey won’t cooperate with any out of state investigation into our health care providers that seeks to punish anyone ― patient, provider, counselor, friend, or Uber driver ― for providing abortion care.”
“Abortion is health care and health care decisions ought to be left as much as the person,” he added. “With the laws we’ve announced today, Recent Jersey will proceed to paved the way forward on reproductive freedom.”
