Gov. Phil Murphy is pushing legislation aimed at stripping conscience rights from some New Jerseyites and all rights from other New Jerseyites. He’s not being subtle about it, either.
The “Reproductive Freedom Act” Murphy introduced in October is an extreme pro-abortion bill that would force everyone to pay for abortions as “healthcare” and explicitly strip unborn babies of any rights.
The bill is dedicated to celebrating and, in call cases, subsidizing and legalizing “the fundamental right to reproductive autonomy,” including “the right to contraception, the right to abortion.” This means abortion must be legal and fully paid for in all circumstances, for any reason, at any stage until the baby is born. Abortion on demand, paid for by others.
To establish this absolute right to abortion, of course, the legislature needs to reduce to zero the rights of the unborn and the conscience rights of others.
“A fertilized egg, embryo, or fetus shall not have independent rights under the laws of this State,” the bill states.
It’s a pretty startling declaration, especially because the rest of the bill establishes that this would include a perfectly healthy, fully viable baby on the verge of being born. No rights.
The few regulations of abortion currently operative in the state (that you cannot abort a baby unless you’re a licensed physician, that you cannot abort a baby after 14 weeks outside of a hospital) would be scrapped.
So would conscience protections. Murphy would outlaw group and individual health insurance plans that do not cover abortion at 100% with no restrictions or prior authorization. Again: abortion on demand, without explanation, at any point, and paid for by people who oppose abortion.
Murphy’s bill would exempt some “religious employers,” but that doesn’t help regular New Jerseyites who don’t want to finance abortions with their health insurance premiums.
Charlie Camosy at the Daily News captures the moment well:
“So no limits on abortion of any kind, and a requirement that private insurance companies cover birth control and abortion with no out-of-pocket costs. Plus the prenatal child is made into a legal non-entity. Her reality — which includes a four-chambered heart beating at seven weeks, pain in the second trimester, and responding to the voices of her parents totally erased from the concerns of New Jersey law.”
“This absurdly anti-science bill would be laughable if it didn’t have a serious chance of passing through the progressive Jersey legislature. Protests have already started and the public condemnation has been swift — including from left-leaning prelates like Newark’s archbishop, Cardinal Joseph Tobin.”
Culture war extremism, however, is the current agenda of the Democratic Party.
