New Jersey abortion clinics don’t offer the procedure past 27 weeks. A clinic planned in Hudson County would treat patients up to 34 weeks. (Getty Images)
Abortion foes often criticize New Jersey for allowing abortion “up until the moment of birth,” because the state is one of just nine nationally that sets no limit on when someone can end their pregnancy.
But clinics here don’t provide abortions past the second trimester, which means people who seek abortions after then must head to other states.
That’s expected to change next year, when a nonprofit aims to open an all-trimester clinic in Hudson County that will provide abortion up to 34 weeks, as well as gender-affirming care for all ages, HIV care, and other services.
Dr. Kristyn Brandi, an obstetrician-gynecologist, and Cathy Obando, a nurse practitioner, say the services they will provide at Luminosas Wellness Collective have become critically important as states around the country increasingly restrict or ban them and providers scale back services to dodge protests, funding cuts, or stigma.
“A lot of people have concerns around providing abortion and providing gender-affirming care in the political landscape right now, but we are providing care because we know people need this care and they’ve had very limited access to it,” Brandi said.
New Jersey has become known as a “safe haven” for abortion since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022, with legislators codifying abortion rights here, funding family planning, and passing laws to protect abortion patients and practitioners from states that criminalize it, among other measures.
But most New Jersey clinics cut off abortion access the later a woman goes into pregnancy, with Planned Parenthood providing it up to 16 weeks and 6 days and just two clinics, in Cherry Hill and Englewood, performing the procedure up to 27 weeks and six days into pregnancy. For New Jersey patients seeking abortions at or after 28 weeks, the closest clinics are in Maryland and Washington, D.C.
Late abortions are scarce nationally too, with only 10 providers offering them from 28 to 34 weeks, according to LaterAbortion.org.
Most people who get abortions get them in the first trimester. People seek abortions later than that often because of newly diagnosed health problems with the fetus or parent, or a change of family circumstance such as job loss, said Bonyen Lee-Gilmore of Patient Forward, a national group that advocates against gestational bans. Young people who don’t recognize they’re pregnant until later in a pregnancy also are overrepresented among second- and third-trimester abortions, she added.
And increasingly, people get abortions in the second trimester or after because some states have created hurdles that can delay getting the procedure, Lee-Gilmore said, including consent requirements, mandates for pre-abortion counseling, or ultrasounds. She added that the costs and logistics of traveling to a different state for abortions, among other things, create more challenges.
“That sort of gauntlet that patients have always had to run in order to access abortion has just gotten more and more complicated in a post-Roe world. And so people are getting pushed later into pregnancy,” she said.
Brandi and Obando know New Jersey’s abortion protections could shift too, as soon as next year when a new governor will take over from term-limited Gov. Phil Murphy. In that race, Democrat Mikie Sherrill has vowed to uphold the state’s abortion protections, but Republican Jack Ciattarelli has said he supports banning abortion after 20 weeks except for rape, incest, or when the health of the mother is in danger.
Marie Tasy, who heads New Jersey Right to Life, said if Brandi and Obando are allowed to move forward with their clinic, it “would leave an indelible stain on New Jersey.”
“This clinic’s stated mission is deeply perverse, making it one of the most extreme examples of the abortion industry’s lack of humanity,” Tasy said.
Brandi and Obando remain committed to open by next summer, with a mission of serving underserved populations that have long faced barriers to health care and dismissive medical professionals. They’re still working to secure a location and aim eventually to train the next generation of providers, as abortion becomes increasingly endangered.
“We have felt the anxiety and the worry patients bring with them when they come in, especially from patients traveling out of state,” Obando said. “They’re definitely grateful for the services and the lifeline that they receive in New Jersey.”
Brandi, a former board chair of Physicians for Reproductive Health, said her commitment to reproductive rights grew after Roe was overturned.
“We need to take care of everybody in our community, and just because the politics are crazy right now, that doesn’t mean that they don’t deserve care,” she said.
She’s gotten hate mail for her work, so she’s tightened security at her home. She and Obando plan to make safety a top priority at their new clinic too.
“It’s scary,” Brandi said. “I think we’re trying to meet the moment. We know that it’s a tough moment for reproductive health care, but if we don’t do it, who will?”
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