New Jersey is becoming a member of a handful of states in stockpiling the abortion drug mifepristone because the nation heads into President-elect Donald Trump’s second time period.
Gov. Phil Murphy (D) and his administration are gathering a six-month provide of mifepristone to make sure future abortion entry as Republican assaults in opposition to the drug loom giant, Murphy’s workforce instructed HuffPost completely. The governor plans to announce his administration’s stockpiling efforts, in addition to a renewed push to remove out-of-pocket prices for abortion care, in his State of the State speech Tuesday afternoon in Trenton.
“My Administration is dedicated to strengthening reproductive freedoms to make sure New Jersey stays a secure haven for sufferers and suppliers, in gentle of the anti-choice insurance policies supported by the Trump Administration and the present majorities in Congress,” Murphy stated in an emailed assertion to HuffPost.
“Stockpiling mifepristone will defend entry to this important well being care, and eliminating out-of-pocket prices for abortion procedures will proceed our work to make reproductive well being care inexpensive,” Murphy continued. “These efforts construct upon the protections and companies we have now invested in over the previous seven years.”
The New Jersey Division of Well being has already began working with abortion suppliers all through the state, together with Deliberate Parenthood, to stockpile mifepristone. The transfer is a part of a $50 million funding into reproductive well being care companies included in the state’s 2025 budget. Along with mifepristone, the funds will go towards hiring extra reproductive well being care staff and upgrading and increasing the state’s household planning services.
New Jersey joins a handful of states, together with Oregon, California and Maryland, which have stockpiled mifepristone within the wake of Republican threats to abortion capsules. Remedy abortion, or the mix of mifepristone and misoprostol, has been beneath assault since Roe v. Wade fell in 2022.
Though Trump has claimed he’ll maintain abortion capsules accessible when he returns to the White Home, he has boasted repeatedly about his function in repealing federal abortion protections, which allowed nearly 20 states to enact abortion bans. As a part of Project 2025, Trump allies described how they hoped the president-elect would limit abortion care, together with plans to revoke the Food and Drug Administration’s approval of mifepristone and criminalize the mailing of abortion capsules utilizing the Comstock Act, a regulation handed eight years after the tip of the Civil Conflict.
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Murphy additionally plans to name on New Jersey lawmakers to move one of two bills at present working their approach by the state Senate and Meeting that might reduce out-of-pocket prices for abortion care. New Jersey covers abortion companies beneath the state-regulated insurance coverage, however out-of-pocket prices can nonetheless add up for sufferers. The governor pressed the legislature to move related payments final yr and failed, however deputy press secretary Stella Porter instructed HuffPost the administration is extra optimistic that the payments will get traction this yr.
“We take into account ourselves a secure haven for abortion care,” Porter stated. “So let’s deliver that on top of things by simply easing this one factor that may actually be a barrier for lots of girls, which is that value that finally ends up on their shoulders.”
Beneath Murphy’s administration, New Jersey has expanded protections for reproductive well being care. Murphy signed the Freedom of Reproductive Alternative Act into regulation months forward of the Supreme Court docket choice that repealed Roe. The regulation codified the correct to reproductive autonomy, together with abortion and contraception, into the state structure ― one thing a number of states tried to do solely after Roe fell.
