I am proudly, boringly, hydrangea-level pro-choice. That is the opinion. The law is a statute, and we are going to treat it like one.
P.L. 2021, c. 375, the Freedom of Reproductive Choice Act, was signed January 13, 2022. It does not invent a new hobby. It codifies a right the New Jersey Supreme Court had already recognized under the State Constitution: the fundamental right to choose or refuse contraception, to terminate a pregnancy, or to carry a pregnancy to term. The Act says that right “shall not be abridged” by a law, rule, regulation, ordinance, or order from State, county, or local government. Abridging laws are the ones that fail.
NJ DOH’s Know Your Rights page is the public translation. Every individual present in the State has that cluster of rights — not only people with a New Jersey driver’s license. It includes people under State control. Minors who are pregnant can consent to their own care; parental permission is not the gate. Dobbs did not ban abortion in New Jersey. The federal decision removed a federal floor elsewhere. It did not repeal P.L. 2021, c. 375, and it did not erase the State Constitution.
DOH is explicit that care is not limited to residents; that New Jersey has protections against extradition for care that is legal here; that medication and procedural abortion are both options; and that you may terminate a pregnancy on your own in New Jersey. Confirm that page, not a rumor mill. I am not going to invent a gestational-age cutoff that the DOH page did not hand me for this brief.
Carrying to term is also in the statute. Choice is not a slogan that only points one way. It is the legal fact that the State does not get to pick your path. Adoption is a real path too; it is not a statutory substitute for the abortion right. That is the next brief: Adoption is a choice. It is not instead of the abortion statute.
If you are harassed on the way into care, DOH says contact local law enforcement or your county prosecutor. Facility complaints can go to the Department of Health; physician complaints go to the Board of Medical Examiners. Discrimination in a place of public accommodation can go to DCR. Those are the official doors, not a comment section. More doors: where to go.
Questions, or a referral: hello@bonnielawconsulting.com or /contact. Also Bonnie Law Consulting. Farmingdale, New Jersey.
What Dobbs did not do here
Dobbs is a federal decision about a federal constitutional floor. New Jersey had already written P.L. 2021, c. 375. The State Constitution already had a right the Act codifies. Every individual present in the State. Minors can consent, per NJ DOH. Contraception, terminate, or carry to term. I will keep repeating the “or.” Choice includes continuing a pregnancy. Choice includes ending one. The statute is not a slogan from either direction.
Official page, again, because this is the kind of subject where a blog should send you off-site: https://www.nj.gov/health/reproductivehealth/know-your-rights/. If that page and I ever disagree, the page wins.