The measure also includes ‘gender-affirming care’ under the definition of protected reproductive healthcare services.
New Jersey Gov. Mikie Sherrill signed legislation on Thursday that can potentially criminalize conducting prayers outside abortion centers in the state, according to pro-life organization New Jersey Right to Life (NJRTL).
The bill, S2260, aims to strengthen protections for people seeking reproductive healthcare services such as abortion in New Jersey, as well as the healthcare professionals who provide such services, according to an Aug. 20 statement from the governor’s office.
The new law makes it a crime to threaten, intimidate, physically block, or injure patients or providers of reproductive healthcare.
The legislation creates a new crime of “interference with reproductive health care services,” according to a July 1 legislative fiscal estimate of the bill.
The measure does not explicitly call for banning prayers outside abortion centers but authorizes taking civil actions against a person deemed to be unlawfully interfering with another individual’s reproductive healthcare services.
In such cases, a court can award compensatory damages, injunctive relief, punitive damages, and other relief to the victims. The bill classifies it as a fourth-degree crime that can attract a fine of up to $10,000, 18 months’ imprisonment, or both. If victims suffer bodily injuries, the prison term and fines increase.
In an Aug. 20 statement, NJRTL condemned the bill, arguing it provides “sweeping legal immunity” to abortion service providers.
NJRTL executive director Marie Tasy said that terms such as “intimidate,” “coerce,” and “threat” are subjective and based on individual feelings, which makes the bill’s language a “serious danger” to free speech.
“Peaceful sidewalk counseling, prayer, holding signs, or simply offering help and alternatives outside a facility can easily be labeled ‘intimidation’ by someone who claims to feel threatened, leaving pro-life advocates open to criminal charges that are difficult to disprove and chilling constitutionally protected expression,” Tasy said.
Tasy alleged the new law to be a “deliberate act of defiance” against the most basic of human rights—the right to life for children in the womb. She accused Sherrill of creating vague new criminal penalties to silence people who object to what she said were “radical policies.”
