WASHINGTON, D.C. (LifeSiteNews) — A Republican Congressman from New Jersey said his home state’s new law allowing for abortion up until the moment of birth is a “human rights abuse.”
“It totally dehumanizes unborn children and makes them persona non grata. It will lead to even more abortions going forward,” Congressman Chris Smith (R-NJ) told Breitbart about the recently passed legislation.
Smith called Democratic Governor Phil Murphy the “abortion governor” and said his support for killing preborn babies could be seen in how he handled COVID restrictions.
“During the height of the pandemic, he ordered that all the abortion clinics get to stay open,” Smith said.
“But necessary surgeries, including for cancer, and other work were delayed or put off limits during the worst of the COVID crisis. What a revelation of priorities that was.”
The legislation gives a “total legal green light to dismember children and chemically poison children,” he added.
“There’s a great number of scientists [who] are recognizing after prenatal surgeries, that, even at age 15 weeks, they make sure they anesthetize the baby to assist the baby,” Smith told Breitbart. But abortionists “have absolutely no compassion for the baby.”
Smith, who has represented the Garden State for more than 40 years, said the state is now fully in support of a “human rights abuse.”
“And Murphy has now put the full weight of our state government, our state law, on the side of the abortionist, so it’s deeply troubling,” he said.
Gov. Murphy signed the bill on Jan. 13 alongside Planned Parenthood President Alexis McGill Johnson.
“With Roe v. Wade under attack, today’s historic legislation makes clear that New Jersey’s position in supporting the right to reproductive choice [sic] remains protected,” Murphy said.
“Together, with expanding contraception coverage, these two pieces of legislation serve to meaningfully and tangibly increase access to reproductive health care [sic], and ensure that New Jersey residents are now, and will remain, in control of their reproductive choice.”
Roxanne Sutocky, a spokesperson for abortion facilities in the state, thanked Murphy for stopping so-called “reproductive oppression.”
“We appreciate the efforts of the legislature and the Governor to pass this historic legislation and we call on these representatives to do more to eliminate the remaining barriers which fall hardest on people working to make ends meet,” Sutocky said. This includes “people living in rural areas, undocumented people, and LGBTQIA+ and BIPOC communities disproportionately impacted by systemic racism and reproductive oppression.”
Murphy, who is a baptized Catholic, said he sees no conflict in signing the legislation and his faith.
“And, as I said, this one has been a hard one for me,” Murphy said. “Yet I would be running afoul of those very same values if I used my personal faith to deny services, especially health services, to those who reach different personal conclusions through their own faith. I cannot allow that to happen, and I will not.”
Murphy cited a Jesuit priest who supports the right of abortion as an argument why it’s acceptable for him to support a “gravely immoral” sin.
Fr. Pat Conroy, SJ, 71, is a former Catholic chaplain of the U.S. House of Representatives (2011-2021) and now works for Gonzaga University in Spokane, Washington.