New Jersey governor signs law targeting pro-life pregnancy centers

New Jersey Gov. Mikie Sherrill has signed a law pro-life groups say can be used against people who pray or offer women help outside abortion businesses.

The Democrat signed S2260 into law last week, and it took effect immediately. The new policy creates a crime: interference with reproductive health care services.

The law bans people from threatening or hurting patients and abortion workers. It also bars them from blocking access to a facility or damaging its property.

Most of what would be considered illegal under the new law was in fact already illegal.

However, pro-life groups say the new law uses broad terms that could also make peaceful sidewalk counseling illegal in certain cases. These counselors often pray, hold signs or tell women about help available at pro-life pregnancy centers.

New Jersey Right to Life said women seeking abortion could say counselors made them feel intimidated even when pro-life advocates did not threaten them.

“Peaceful sidewalk counseling, prayer, holding signs, or simply offering help and alternatives outside a facility can easily be labeled ‘intimidation,’” the group said in a statement.

The law also lets abortion workers or patients file lawsuits when they’ve been “harmed.” This can include harm to a person’s business or reputation. It can also include claims of mental or emotional harm.

Critics fear possible criminal charges and lawsuits will silence pro-life Christians.

Pro-life pregnancy centers offer women another choice when they feel pressured into having an abortion. Many centers give women free ultrasounds and parenting classes. These centers also offer clothes, diapers and other material help to women after they give birth to their babies.

The new law doesn’t mention pro-life pregnancy centers. However, it gives greater legal protection to abortion businesses while people who offer women another path face the risk of being accused of interference.

Sherrill said the state will defend abortion clinics, as well as those offering so-called gender-affirming care.

“Here in New Jersey, we are standing firm in defense of reproductive freedoms – including the right to choose and the right to receive gender-affirming care,” Sherrill said in an Aug. 20 statement.

The law also expands New Jersey’s shield law, which prevents state agencies from helping with some out-of-state cases involving abortions or transgender procedures performed in New Jersey. The state will also protect the licenses of providers who perform those procedures.

New Jersey Right to Life executive director Marie Tasy said the law helps the abortion industry, not women.

“S2260 does not protect women,” Tasy said. “It protects the people who end the lives of living human children already growing in the womb.”

The law comes as New Jersey has fought a pro-life pregnancy center in court for years.

Matthew Platkin, formerly attorney general of the state, issued a subpoena to First Choice Women’s Resource Centers in 2023. The state demanded information tied to nearly 5,000 donations and years of private records.

In April, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled unanimously that First Choice could challenge the subpoena in federal court.