The state’s Catholic Bishops are sharply criticizing new proposals by the Murphy Administration that would expand abortion care in New Jersey, promising to fight any such effort.
Calling it “a direct attack on the dignity and sanctity of life,” the leaders of the New Jersey Catholic dioceses in a statement expressed their “disappointment and outrage” over Gov. Phil Murphy’s announcement.
The bishops, labeling abortion “an act that by its very nature terminates human life,” characterized the proposals “further evidence that we have failed as a society when a mother feels her only option is to end the life of her child.”
On Wednesday, Murphy announced that he would support legislation that would widen New Jersey’s pool of potential abortion providers to include advance practice nurses, midwives and physician assistants. He also called for measures that would mandate that insurance plans in New Jersey cover abortion with no out-of-pocket costs.
“A person’s ability to access abortion care should not depend on how much money they make,” the governor said.
The governor signed a bill in January that enshrined abortion rights into state law, anticipating the majority-conservative U.S. Supreme Court would render a ruling overturning or restricting Roe V. Wade in June.
But the legislation had been stripped of provisions that would have required state-licensed insurance plans to cover the cost of abortion care. Socially conservative Democrats in the state Senate and Assembly had refused to support it, privately saying they didn’t want to make it “too easy” to terminate a pregnancy.
However, the leak a week ago of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito’s draft majority opinion indicating the court intended to repeal Roe — allowing states to enact their own abortion laws — led the governor to call upon the New Jersey Legislature to take bolder action.
“At that time, there were also some who claimed we were being alarmist and that the Supreme Court would never overturn Roe v. Wade. That was five months ago,” Murphy said Wednesday. “Today it is clearer than ever that in the coming weeks, a right-wing majority on the Supreme Court likely will take a wrecking ball to 50 years of its own precedent and for the very first time, overturn a decision in order to diminish our rights.”
Whether he has the support in the Legislature to move his new proposals remains unclear. Democratic leaders this past week would not specifically commit to the governor’s calls for action.
State Senate President Nicholas Scutari, D-Union, and state Assembly Speaker Craig Coughlin, D-Middlesex, in the wake of his announcement, said only that they “fundamentally support a woman’s right to choose” and “will continue working to protect access and ensure no woman is stripped of her right to choose.”
At the same time, Senate Republican Leader Steven Oroho, R-Sussex, criticized the governor.
“Gov. Murphy’s radical proposal calls for free abortions with no limits right up to birth, and he wants struggling New Jersey families to pay for abortions for everyone through even higher taxes and health care premiums,” Oroho said.
In their statement, the bishop said New Jersey already has some of the most permissive abortion laws in the country and provides abortion providers with “tens of millions of dollars in public funds” to perform these services.
“New Jersey continues to rank among the top three states in annual abortion procedures nationwide,” they wrote. “For these reasons it is incomprehensible to force health insurance providers in New Jersey to cover 100% of the cost to expand access to these abhorrent services.”
The statement, signed by Cardinal Joseph W. Tobin, Archbishop of the Archdiocese of Newark; Kevin J. Sweeney, Bishop of the Diocese of Paterson; David M. O’Connell, Bishop of the Diocese of Trenton; James F. Checchio, Bishop of the Diocese of Metuchen; Dennis J. Sullivan, Bishop of the Diocese of Camden; Kurt Burnette, Bishop of the Eparchy of Passaic; and Yousif Habash, Bishop of Our Lady of Deliverance of Syriac Catholic Diocese, said the Catholic Church was committed to opposing the governor’s proposed legislation.
They added that the Church was also standing ready to “broaden and increase awareness about the abundant resources and programs we offer from pregnancy and foster care centers to clothing, food, housing services, adoption agencies, family resource centers, and national programs,” to assist those facing “a difficult and unplanned pregnancy.”
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Staff writer Susan K. Livio contributed to this report.
Ted Sherman may be reached at tsherman@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @TedShermanSL
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N.J. bishops call Murphy’s abortion proposals ‘a direct attack on dignity and sanctity of life’ - NJ.com
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