NJ Dems consider issuing travel advisories for pregnant women on local abortion laws

A proposed New Jersey law would create color-coded travel advisories based on local states’ abortion laws — allowing pregnant women to decide if they still want to go there.

Introduced last week in the state legislature, the bill would require New Jersey’s health and state departments to build a website that describes each state’s abortion laws, according to NJ Spotlight News.

This would help New Jersey women know what to expect in other parts of the country, according to the bill’s sponsor, state Sen. John Burzichelli (D-Gloucester).

“If you’re an individual, a woman, traveling across this country for business — or if you’re thinking about going to school in Mississippi [for instance] — it will help you to know what kind of medical services are available to you should you need emergency care of some kind,” Burzichelli told the outlet.

“Right now, there’s no single place to go to say, ‘OK, I have to travel, I have to go to Texas’ and then move over and go to Tennessee,” he continued. “You don’t have that info at your fingertips. You can find it, but it’s a hodge-podge.

“You, as an American female, do not have equal rights across all 50 states,” he said. “And it’s important for you to know what rights you don’t have when you go somewhere, because something unexpected could happen.”

The bill would create a so-called “Reproductive Health Travel Advisory,” which would categorize the other 49 states by color, the outlet said.

A blue rating would mean women can access abortions without fear of civil or criminal prosecution, while a yellow rating would mean there are restrictions that could lead to penalties.

A red rating would mean extremely limited access that could result in civil or criminal prosecution — as well as dangerous medical problems, according to Burzichelli.

The move follows the US Supreme Court’s 2022 decision that reversed federal abortion rights and undid Roe v. Wade.

The ruling tossed the abortion access question back to individual states — with some quickly enacting bans or slapping restrictions on procedures.

New Jersey went the other way, quickly enacting pro-abortion laws — with the state’s highest court ruling that it was a “fundamental right of a woman to control her body and destiny” under the state’s constitution, according to the Center for Reproductive Rights.

The Garden State also welcomes women forced to travel for an abortion because their own states ban it, and protects them from being extradited afterward, the state’s website said.   

Last year, New Jersey saw more than 58,000 abortions — a 21% increase from 2019, according to the New York Times.

Of those, about 7% were performed on out-of-staters.

“It’s hard to imagine we’re even talking about this in 2024 in America,” Burzichelli said.

“To think that we have to think about even doing this just speaks volumes about where we are at the moment.”