New Jersey Democrats consider issuing travel advisories for pregnant women over local abortion laws

A bill in New Jersey would create color-coded travel advisories based on local state abortion laws, allowing pregnant women to decide whether they still want to go.

Introduced last week in the state legislature, the bill would require New Jersey’s health and state departments to create a website outlining each state’s abortion laws, according to NJ SpotlightNews.

This would help New Jersey women know what to expect in other parts of the country, according to the bill’s sponsor, Sen. John Burzichelli (D-Gloucester).

“If you are an individual, female, traveling across the country on business – or planning to go to school in Mississippi (for example) – this will help you know what types of medical services are available to you. arrangement. if you need emergency care,” Burzichelli told the outlet.

“Right now, there’s no single place to go and say, ‘OK, I have to travel, I have to go to Texas,’ and then move and go to Tennessee,” he continued. . “You don’t have this information at your fingertips. You can find it, but it’s a hodgepodge.

“As an American woman, you don’t have the same rights in all 50 states,” he said. “And it’s important that you know what rights you don’t have when you go somewhere, because something unexpected could happen.”

The bill would create a so-called “Reproductive Health Travel Advisory,” which would categorize the other 49 states by color, the news outlet said.

A blue rating would mean women can access abortion without fear of civil or criminal prosecution, while a yellow rating would mean there are restrictions that could result in sanctions.

A red rating would mean extremely limited access that could result in civil or criminal prosecution – as well as dangerous medical problems, according to Burzichelli.

This decision follows the 2022 United States Supreme Court decision that struck down the federal right to abortion and overturned Roe v. Wade.

The ruling sent the question of abortion access back to individual states – with some quickly enacting bans or imposing restrictions on the procedures.

New Jersey took the opposite path, quickly enacting pro-abortion laws – with the state’s highest court ruling that it was a woman’s “fundamental right to control her body and its destiny” under the state constitution, according to the Center for Reproductive Rights.

The Garden State also welcomes women forced to travel for abortions because their own state prohibits it, and protects them from further extradition, the state website says.

Last year, New Jersey experienced more than 58,000 abortions, a 21% increase from 2019, according to the New York Times.

Of those, about 7 percent were done out of state.

“It’s hard to imagine that we can be talking about this in 2024 in America,” Burzichelli said.

“To think we even have to think about this says a lot about the current situation.”