New Jersey's Fight for Life
Posted January 23, 2009

As America marked the 36^th anniversary of Roe v. Wade yesterday, Americans United for Life (AUL) released its sixth annual report ranking the nation's most and least pro-life states. And while neighboring Pennsylvania earned the highest marks for passing laws that reduce abortions, sadly, New Jersey ranked among the ten most pro-abortion states, sharing with California, Hawaii, Vermont, Connecticut, Nevada, Oregon, New York, Washington, and Illinois this unwelcome distinction.

According to AUL's press release on the report,

While AUL's criteria covers states' treatment of all life issues, final rankings depend largely on each state's enactment of prudent and well-supported laws.  Such laws fence in the abortion license granted by the U.S. Supreme Court in its 1973 decision, Roe v. Wade. Among the laws AUL looks for are informed consent, parental involvement for minors, medically-supported regulation of abortion providers, and limitations on the use of taxpayer dollars for abortion.

At number 47, New Jersey garnered an overall grade of "dangerous" in the categories of abortion, the legal recognition of the unborn and newly-born, and bioethics laws, while earning a "marginal" assessment in healthcare rights of conscience laws - as physicians and healthcare facilities are not required to perform or provide abortions- and a "protective" status in end of life laws, as assisted suicide is a felony in the state.

Overall, AUL notes:

New Jersey directly supports the destruction of human life by allowing and funding destructive experimentation on cloned human embryos and cloned human fetuses. Tragically, New Jersey permits maintaining a cloned human up to the threshold of live birth and then destroying him or her for research. Moreover, the state does not protect women from the negative consequences of abortion, lacking popular, common sense laws such as informed consent and parental involvement.

Yet, there is also good news to report in the form of two laws recently proposed in the New Jersey State Assembly.

A3525, sponsored by Assemblyman Jay Webber (R-Morris/Passaic), would prohibit "wrongful birth" and "wrongful life" lawsuits, which seek to hold healthcare providers accountable for the birth of a child, particularly in cases when the child is diagnosed with a disability or medical condition. According to the bill statement:

These lawsuits raise the unanswerable question of how to compare the value of a life with a disability to the alternative-never having lived at all.. Wrongful birth and life suits marginalize and stigmatize the disabled by communicating the message to all disabled people that their differences make their lives not worth living-that they would be better off dead.. This bill would instead communicate and enshrine the principle that no person can ever be considered a legal harm.

Currently, eight other states have similar laws on the books.

Also sponsored by Assemblyman Webber, A3524, the Prenatally and Postnatally Diagnosed Conditions Awareness Act in New Jersey would increase delivery of critical support services information to new and expecting parents whose child is diagnosed with Down syndrome and other prenatally and postnatally diagnosed conditions. Currently, the vast majority - as many as 90 percent - of unborn children diagnosed with Down syndrome are aborted. By providing expectant parents with comprehensive information on support services - including information on families and adoption agencies willing to accept children with Down syndrome and other conditions - this Act would be critical in helping parents choose life.

A3525 and A3524 were introduced in December and referred to the Assembly Judiciary Committee and Assembly Health and Senior Services Committee, respectively. The NJFPC strongly supports both pieces of legislation and urges the Committee Chairs Linda Greenstein and Herb Conaway to schedule the bills for committee consideration.

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