NJ activists fear potential Supreme Court overturn of Roe v. Wade a sign of more to come

Abortion would not become illegal in New Jersey if the U.S. Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade by late June or early July, as suggested by a draft opinion reported on Monday night by Politico.

Gov. Phil Murphy, a Democrat, signed a law called the Freedom of Reproductive Choice Act earlier this year codifying the landmark 1973 decision establishing a woman's constitutional right to abortion.

But Toms River lawyer and former mayoral candidate Jonathan Petro, who married his husband, Ken Malagiere, in April 2014, said the draft opinion, which the Supreme Court said Tuesday was authentic, shows that this Supreme Court is not bound by previous precedents.

That has many worried about what the opinion could mean beyond abortion rights.

"I think it's greater than even just thinking about abortion rights or even gay marriage," Petro said. "What the court seems to be doing today, is, showing they are not afraid to overturn longtime precedents; they will backtrack to limit a right that has been in place for almost 50 years.

"At that point we don’t have, or we can’t have faith in what we understand to be a precedent. I would say that when you overturn a decision that is 50 years old, you are being an activist jurist. This type of decision is not conservative."

The Politico story noted that Supreme Court Justice Samue Alito writes, "“The inescapable conclusion is that a right to abortion is not deeply rooted in the Nation’s history and traditions."

“We emphasize that our decision concerns the constitutional right to abortion and no other right,” Alito writes. “Nothing in this opinion should be understood to cast doubt on precedents that do not concern abortion.”

"That form of analysis seems at odds with several of the court’s recent decisions, including many of its rulings backing gay rights," the Politico story noted.

Marie Tasy, executive director of anti-abortion group New Jersey Right to Life, said she believes Murphy and Democratic state legislators are "really out of step with the people of New Jersey and the people of the nation."

Tasy said she believes that if the draft opinion — authored by Alito — becomes law, New Jersey eventually will move to ban abortion. She noted that Republicans gained seven seats in the state's Democrat-controlled Legislature in last year's election. The entire Legislature is up for reelection in 2023.

"I think that if this is the final decision and this goes back to the states, I believe there will be many states that will be banning abortion," Tasy said. "I do believe it will eventually be banned in New Jersey. It may take some time, (but) the people of New Jersey are not different from those in any other states."

A 2021 Pew Research survey, however, found 59% of Americans "say abortion should be legal in all or most cases."

The Freedom of Reproductive Choice Act that Murphy signed in January guarantees "the fundamental right of reproductive autonomy." It also allows "all qualified health care professionals" to conduct abortions.

Murphy called the Supreme Court' s possible move to overturn Roe v. Wade "a truly dark day in America," but vowed the state would "not go backwards" on reproductive rights.

But Tasy and others noted that the act could be overturned by a GOP Legislature and governor.

Should Roe be overturned, 28 states are poised to prohibit abortion, according to NARAL Pro-Choice America. Of those, 13 states already have “trigger bans” in place, which would ban abortion automatically if Roe is overturned.

“This is the most ominous and alarming sign yet that our nation’s highest court is poised to overturn Roe v. Wade, ending the constitutional right to abortion as we know it and ripping away our freedom to decide if, when, and how to raise our families," said NARAL Pro-Choice America President Mini Timmaraju in a statement. "While this is a draft opinion and abortion is still legal, we need to brace for a future where more and more people are punished and criminalized for seeking and providing abortion care.

"Now more than ever, we must support those working to provide abortion care and elect champions who will relentlessly fight for reproductive freedom and take bold action to safeguard abortion rights.”

Kaitlyn Wojtowicz, vice president of public affairs for the Planning Parenthood Action Fund of New Jersey, said in a statement that the leaked draft opinion "makes it clear that we are at a crisis moment for abortion access. The court seems prepared to end our nationwide, constitutional right to abortion.

"This outcome is as dangerous as it is unprecedented, and will open the floodgates for states across the country to ban abortion. And this is not even the end goal for the anti-abortion movement: just this week, news broke that their ultimate goal is to pass a nationwide ban on abortion that would block abortion access in every state in the country.

"The court, which is now dominated by justices hostile to our freedoms, has failed this country. We are devastated, we are furious, and we will fight back," Wojtowicz added.

A complete picture on how frequently abortion occurs in New Jersey doesn’t exist. The state has no requirement for physicians or women’s centers to report data to a central health agency, like most states, leaving large gaps in data collection.

More than 20,000 abortions occur at hospitals or ambulatory centers in New Jersey each year, according to partial data collected by the CDC. Because access to reproductive services is fairly extensive in New Jersey, however, this is likely a considerable undercount.

Jean Mikle covers Toms River and several other Ocean County towns, and has been writing about local government and politics at the Jersey Shore for nearly 37 years. A finalist for the 2010 Pulitzer Prize in public service, she's also passionate about the Shore's storied music scene. Contact her: @jeanmikle, jmikle@gannettnj.com.

State Bureau Staff Writer Dustin Racioppi and Investigative Data Editor Stephen Stirling contributed to this story.

This article originally appeared on Asbury Park Press: Abortion rights end feared by some NJ residents, cheered by others