New Jersey’s “Reproductive Freedom Act” is being called the “License to Kill Bill” or the “Kill at Will Bill” by pro-life activists.
The bill, introduced in the state’s Senate in October just weeks after the death of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg, asserts that access to abortion is “central to the ability of women to participate equally in the economic and social life of the United States and the state of New Jersey.” It also declares that a “fertilized egg, embryo or fetus shall not have independent rights” under New Jersey law.
“This bill … is the most radical bill ever proposed in our state,” Lisa Hart, vice president of Morris County Right to Life, said. “It attempts to enshrine in perpetuity the ability to kill a baby in the womb through all nine months. It removes the conscience protection for medical workers. It allows nondoctors to commit abortions. Young pregnant girls can get an abortion without their parents’ knowledge or permission, risking their heath. And it forces every one of us to pay for it.”
New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy and members of the state legislature have signaled their intent to advance abortion legislation in the state ever since Amy Coney Barrett was added as a justice to the U.S. Supreme Court, securing a conservative majority on the nation’s high court.
If the Supreme Court were to overturn Roe v. Wade, abortion rights would become an issue decided by each state.
“We stand unwavering in our commitment to work towards reproductive freedom for all New Jerseyans,” Murphy said when the Reproductive Freedom Act was first introduced.
But pro-life advocates argue that the “freedom” Murphy and state legislators are promising would result in the deaths of many more unborn babies and actually take away many people’s individual freedoms.
“It is a very, very sad time in the history of our state that something so horrifying can even be written on paper, never mind considered as law,” said Hart. “What has happened to us? Why does anyone think killing a baby in the womb is a good thing, never mind insisting that society pay for it, allowing it when the child can clearly feel horrific pain, endangering the health of women and hurting society as a whole?”