Pro-choice advocates say a GOP win in this year’s gubernatorial race could alter the abortion landscape in New Jersey, which the incumbent governor has called a “safe haven” for those seeking and providing the procedure. (Dana DiFilippo | New Jersey Monitor)
While abortion has been a constant campaign issue for political candidates from coast to coast since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022, it’s become barely a blip in New Jersey’s race to replace term-limited Gov. Phil Murphy.
That’s partly because New Jersey leaders have enacted strong abortion protections since then, observers say. Abortion rights supporters rank New Jersey at or near the top when it comes to reproductive rights, while the Murphy administration has declared the state a safe haven for those seeking or providing the procedure.
It’s also because both leading candidates for governor have said they support abortion rights. Rep. Mikie Sherrill (D) said she backs current state protections that allow abortion with no gestational limit, while Jack Ciattarelli (R) backs the procedure up to 20 weeks. The two are vying for Murphy’s job on Nov. 4.
Ashley Koning, director of the Eagleton Center for Public Interest Polling at Rutgers University, said affordability and taxes have increasingly edged out abortion as priorities for voters, both in recent surveys and in last year’s general election.
“I don’t really see an issue like abortion eking through in these final weeks,” Koning said. “At the end of the day, ‘It’s always the economy, stupid.’ That’s what New Jersey voters are going to care about when it comes to this Jersey-centric statewide election.”
Advocates on both sides of the reproductive rights fight agree the abortion landscape could look vastly different in New Jersey under a Republican governor, with Ciattarelli vowing to defund Planned Parenthood, fund antiabortion pregnancy centers, require parental notification for minors seeking abortions, and pass a bill now stalled in the Statehouse that would largely ban abortion after 20 weeks.
Abortion rights supporters fear New Jersey’s gubernatorial trends could prevail and land Ciattarelli the win. It’s been more than 60 years since either party won the governorship three elections in a row, as Sherrill is seeking to do this year.
“We’re preparing for either scenario, whether there is a Mikie Sherrill governor or Jack Ciattarelli is elected governor,” said Kaitlyn Wojtowicz, executive director of Planned Parenthood Action Fund of New Jersey. “We could face some really grave issues with Jack Ciattarelli as governor … to us, this is one of the most consequential elections of, I will say, my lifetime, when it comes to what the future of reproductive health care access can look like in New Jersey, especially with the threats at the federal level.”
President Donald Trump and his administration have moved to block Medicaid funds from Planned Parenthood, pardoned antiabortion activists charged with federal crimes for blocking access to clinics, and threatened access to birth control, among other things.
Where the candidates stand
Sherrill has been a steadfast supporter of abortion rights, appearing at rallies and press conferences to advocate for reproductive rights, introducing legislation in Congress to protect abortion and IVF access for military women, and consistently voting to maintain abortion access.
Asked by the New Jersey Monitor if she supports any restrictions on the procedure, she said: “This is a decision that should be made between a woman and her doctor.”
“I’m in favor of choice,” she said.
Sherrill voted twice in favor of the Women’s Health Protection Act, which ultimately failed but would have codified the abortion rights enshrined in Roe v. Wade. If elected governor, Sherrill said she would move to include abortion rights in the state constitution.
“Jack wants an abortion ban. He’s also in favor of defunding Planned Parenthood. All of these things that can lead to worse and worse health for women in our state,” Sherrill said. “I think what we really need is a constitutional protection, so it doesn’t matter who’s governor, women are protected in our state.”
A Ciattarelli campaign spokesman directed the New Jersey Monitor to its website, which says the decision whether to end a pregnancy is “deeply personal” and “should be between a woman, her partner, her faith, and her health care professionals.”
But Ciattarelli has also said he supports repealing the Freedom of Reproductive Choice Act, the 2022 state law that codified abortion rights here, and passing the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act, a bill that has been introduced every legislative session since 2016 that would ban abortion after 20 weeks except in cases of rape or incest or if the mother’s life is endangered. New Jersey is one of nine states that allow abortion at any point of gestation, according to the Guttmacher Institute, a research organization that supports abortion rights.
At a town hall in Pitman last month, Ciattarelli brought up abortion in response to a question about the rights parents have over their children’s health care decisions. He said he would bar people under 18 from getting abortions without parental consent.
“Here in the state of New Jersey, a child can’t get their ears pierced if they’re under the age of 18 without what? Permission from their parents,” he said. “We’re going to have 15- and 16-year-olds getting an abortion, and parents aren’t going to be notified? I have yet to find even the most liberal person that agrees with that policy position.”
He also has echoed the Trump administration’s calls to defund Planned Parenthood, saying he opposes using public funds for abortion and would redirect that money to antiabortion pregnancy centers. The Murphy administration remains locked in a legal battle with a group of these centers, which have challenged a state investigation into whether they use deceptive advertising to lure pregnant patients who may be considering abortion.
’20/20 Project’
Antiabortion advocates gathered at the Statehouse in Trenton last month for the New Jersey March for Life.
The march was just 40 days before the general election, but most speakers didn’t mention the election or Ciattarelli. That didn’t surprise Marie Tasy, who heads New Jersey Right to Life.
“He says he’s pro-choice,” Tasy told the New Jersey Monitor. Her group endorsed conservative radio host Bill Spadea in the GOP primary.
Brennan Coughlin, pastor of Fellowship CrossPoint Church in Chesterfield, said he’s “underwhelmed” by Ciattarelli’s abortion stance.
“I did not vote for him in the primary. I voted for Bill Spadea, who’s much more clear and strong on protecting babies in the womb,” said Coughlin, a frequent fixture at antiabortion rallies. “But I will definitely vote for Jack Ciattarelli, knowing that Mikie Sherrill would be, from my vantage point, continuing the policies of Gov. Murphy that we do not support and are staunchly opposed to.”
Michael D. Byrne regards such sentiments as a failure of messaging, rather than an enthusiasm gap.
Byrne is a Republican and member of the New Jersey Pro-Life Alliance, a group that formed after the spring primaries to mobilize voters on the abortion issue. They plan an advertising campaign in the coming weeks to let antiabortion voters know Ciattarelli is their guy, Byrne said.
While some abortion critics oppose the procedure at any stage of pregnancy, a 20-week ban has proven tolerable enough in antiabortion circles that a coalition of New Jersey advocates in 2017 launched an effort called the 20/20 Project to push for such a prohibition by 2020.
“It’s one of those 80/20 positions in politics where the vast majority of voters, when they have time to think about late-term abortion versus early, agree that there should be some limits,” Byrne said.
Byrne has a lot more enthusiasm for Ciattarelli than Tasy and Coughlin.
“We’re excited about finally having a candidate who is a serious candidate — who’s likely to win, I think, at this point — and who will champion the 20-week bill, as well as other common sense things like parental notification and ending taxpayer funding for abortion,” Byrne said.
Abortion rights advocates hope the schism in the antiabortion community will help sink Ciattarelli’s chances.
Wojtowicz said undecided voters need only look back to former Gov. Chris Christie’s tenure for a reminder of what New Jersey could look like under Ciattarelli. Christie repeatedly vetoed family planning funding, which drove at least six clinics to close. Beyond abortion, such clinics also offer patients screening for sexually transmitted infections and cancer, as well as preventative services including birth control, Wojtowicz said.
“We’ve been here before, and we know what we could expect under a Ciattarelli governorship. It would be devastating for public health,” she said.
Jeanne LoCicero, legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union of New Jersey, said the next governor should not meddle in matters of bodily autonomy.
“Everyone should be able to get the reproductive health care they need, and that includes abortion care, and they need to be able to obtain that care when they need it and without the interference of politicians,” LoCicero said. “So New Jersey should be enacting protections for patients seeking abortion care and other reproductive care, and not putting barriers in place. These are decisions that need to be made with patients and doctors and not by lawmakers.”
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