TRENTON, New Jersey (LifeSiteNews) — New Jersey Democrat Gov. Mikie Sherrill signed legislation Thursday to criminalize “interference with reproductive health care services,” opening peaceful prayer and activism outside abortion and “gender transition” facilities to new legal persecution in the name of “access.”
S2260/A2218 states that someone is “guilty of interference with reproductive health care services” if he or she knowingly and intentionally “inflicts or attempts to inflict bodily injury on another person” or intimidation for the purpose of restricting access to “reproductive health care services”; obstructing access to the entrance or exit of such a facility; using force, threats, intimidation, or coercion to keep someone from “becoming or remaining a patient, provider, volunteer, or assistant” in such services; “damages, defaces, or destroys” related property; or “causes a reasonable person to suffer damage to the person’s business or personal reputation, financial harm, or pain and suffering, mental anguish, or emotional harm on the basis that the person, entity, or facility provides, volunteers, assists with, or receives reproductive health care services.”
That last provision in particular would potentially open up lawful activists to punishment on vague and subjective criteria for peacefully protesting, or even simply praying, on public property outside of abortion facilities or “gender clinics.”
“We have seen attacks from the Trump Administration and other states on access to reproductive and gender affirming healthcare, and attempts to impose restrictions across state borders. Here in New Jersey, we are standing firm in defense of reproductive freedoms – including the right to choose and the right to receive gender-affirming care,” Sherrill declared in announcing her signing of the bill.
“No one should fear intimidation or violence for seeking healthcare, and no healthcare professional should fear punishment from another state for providing care that is legal in New Jersey. With this legislation, we are making clear that New Jersey will protect patients, providers, and the fundamental freedom to make personal healthcare decisions.”
“Governor Sherrill just signed a blank check for the abortion industry and a death warrant for countless unborn children with beating hearts, and she did it despite thousands of emails from New Jersey residents urging her to veto this bill,” responded New Jersey Right to Life Executive Director Marie Tasy.
“S2260 does not protect women. It protects the people who end the lives of living human children already growing in the womb. New Jersey should be a sanctuary for mothers and babies, not a legal fortress for those who profit from abortion.”
Despite branding itself as “pro-choice,” the pro-abortion movement is notoriously hostile to pro-lifers gathering outside abortion centers to offer women prayers, information about alternatives, or compassionate encouragement to choose life, and has long tried to quash such gatherings, from local buffer zone or “bubble” laws that establish distances activists must keep from facilities, to the federal Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act, which was theoretically intended to protect access to medical facilities without political bias but was abused by the Biden administration to jail peaceful pro-lifers.
New Jersey is one of nine states with no gestational limits on abortion, enabling the opening of a so-called “all-trimester” abortion facility this summer. In March, Sherrill unveiled a 2027 budget proposal that allocated $52 million to the abortion industry even as the state faces a $3 billion budget deficit.
The state also has a record of hostility for the rights of residents who disagree. New Jersey is one of 13 states currently under federal investigation for allegedly coercing health providers into covering abortion in violation of federal law, and, in April, the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously sided with a group of faith-based pregnancy centers suing New Jersey for trying to force them to turn over massive amounts of donor information and confidential internal documents.