The other day I was thinking to myself how lucky I am to live in a place where I can have access to my birth control method and where I have places and doctors who can assist me if something wrong happens to me. The Texas law will allow any person to sue an abortion provider and anyone else who help the woman (the assistant who make appointments or a cab driver). If the judicial process determines that it was an “illegal” abortion the person who anonymously denounced gets a $10,000 bounty paid with our taxes. This law prohibits abortions after 6 weeks. Many women don’t realize that they are pregnant by then. What is next? To put women who seek abortions behind bars?

Women seeks abortion for many reasons and all need to be protected. What about those women who are in an abusive relationship and don’t have control over their bodies? What about girls who are being sexually abused by a family member? What about those who because of religious beliefs are forced to have a lot of children and those who are suffering from cancer and can’t go under treatment because it would put the pregnancy at risk. What about those who live in poverty and have too many children already or those who don’t want to have children but their birth control failed... Abortion bans don't stop women from seeking abortions, they put poor women at risk of dying from an unsafe abortion or force them to continue with a pregnancy that they don't want or can't afford.

The Reproductive Freedom Act (S3030/A4848) is stuck in NJ legislature committees. In light of what’s happening in Texas, which will spread to other states, we should encourage NJ legislators to protect and expand access to birth control and pregnancy-care, including abortion in NJ. Call legislators Herb Conaway, Craig Coughlin, Stephen Sweeney, and Joseph Vitale to approve RFA now.