Pro-life advocates are urging people to contact lawmakers in New Jersey to reject a bill that will allow late-term abortions up until the moment of a child’s birth.
The NJ “Reproductive Freedom Act” (S3030/A4848) is being called a “radical bill”. It was introduced in the Senate and Assembly last October, in an effort to increase women’s rights to abortion and allow non-physicians to perform the procedure.
The measure indicates that “a fertilized egg, embryo, or fetus may not be understood to have independent rights under any of the laws of this State.”
Additionally, it specifies that “any health care professional, acting within the professional’s lawful scope of practice and in compliance with generally applicable regulations, is authorized to provide abortion care.”
Lisa Hart, vice president of Morris County Right to Life, said the bill is the most extreme to ever be considered in New Jersey, The Beacon reports.
“This bill, nicknamed the ‘License to Kill Bill,’ or ‘Kill at Will Bill’ is the most radical bill ever proposed in our state,” Hart 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.”
And some say the name of the bill is misleading.
Christine Flaherty, director of Lifenet, explained that “the name is very ironic because so many elements of this bill take people’s individual freedoms away,” she told The Beacon.
Frank Tinari, parishioner of Holy Family Church in Florham Park, says, “The title of the Act is deliberately deceptive. It should more honestly be titled, ‘Pregnancy Termination Act,’ or better, ‘Developing Baby Extermination Act’.”
He added, “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. 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?”
And pro-lifer Art Ally, who founded the Timothy Plan, said the bill should be called the “Freedom to Kill Act.”
“Infanticide is the ultimate evil,” Ally said. “Nothing is more horrific than the death of an innocent unborn child who is voiceless, helpless and whose plan from the Lord is birth and life. We will be held accountable if we don’t help stop the killing of our most precious ones.”
Gov. Phil Murphy (D-NJ) declared his support for the bill when it was first introduced.
“As access to health care and the right to choose are under attack at the federal level, we will support, defend, and protect reproductive rights here in New Jersey. ‘The Reproductive Freedom Act’ will remove barriers to reproductive health, as well as expand access to contraception while reaffirming choice,” Murphy declared. “Together, we stand unwavering in our commitment to work towards reproductive freedom for all New Jerseyans.”