The proposed New Jersey law would create color-coded travel advisories based on local states’ abortion laws — allowing pregnant women to decide if they still want to go there.
The bill, introduced in the state Legislature last week, would require New Jersey’s health and state departments to create a website that describes each state’s abortion laws. According to NJ Spotlight News.
According to the bill’s sponsor, Democratic state Senator John Burzichelli of Gloucester County, this will help New Jersey women know what to expect in other parts of the country.
“If you are a single person, a woman, traveling across this country for business – or if you are thinking about going to school in Mississippi (for example) – it will help you to know What kind of medical services are available to you whether you need emergency care or any kind of that,’ Burzichelli told the outlet.
“Right now, there’s not a single place to say, ‘Okay I have to travel, I have to go to Texas and then go ahead and go to Tennessee,'” he added. “You don’t have that information at your fingertips. You can find it, but it’s a cheat.
“As an American woman you don’t have the same rights in all 50 states,” she said. “And it’s important for you to know what rights you don’t have when you go somewhere, because something unexpected could happen.”
The outlet said the bill would create a so-called “reproductive health travel advisory,” which would categorize the other 49 states by color.
A blue rating would mean that women can obtain an abortion without fear of civil or criminal prosecution, while a yellow rating would mean that there are restrictions that could result in penalties.
According to Burzichelli, a red rating would mean extremely limited access which could result in civil or criminal prosecution – as well as dangerous medical problems.
The move follows a 2022 decision by the US Supreme Court that overturned federal abortion rights and struck down Roe v. Wade.
The decision threw the question of abortion access back up to individual states – with some immediately imposing bans or restricting the procedures.
New Jersey went the other way, rapidly enacting pro-abortion laws – the state’s highest court ruled that it was a woman’s fundamental right “to control her body and destiny” under the state constitution, According to the Center for Reproductive Rights.
The Garden State also welcomes women who are forced to travel for abortions because their own states ban it, and protects them from being extradited later, the state website said.
Last year, more than 58,000 abortions took place in New Jersey – a 21% increase from 2019, According to the New York Times.
Of those, about 7% were performed on out-of-staters.
“It’s hard to imagine that we’re talking about this in America in 2024,” Burzichelli said.
“To think that we would even have to think about doing this speaks volumes of where we are right now.”
(TagstoTranslate)US News(T)Abortion(T)New Jersey(T)Reproductive Rights(T)Roe v. Wade(T)Supreme Court
