New Jersey Gov. Mikie Sherrill has signed legislation that would subject individuals “interfering with those seeking abortions or transgender procedures” to criminal penalties.

According to LifeNews, the bill may ban prayer outside of abortion centers.

“Governor Sherrill just signed a blank check for the abortion industry and a death warrant for countless unborn children with beating hearts, and she did it despite thousands of emails from New Jersey residents urging her to veto this bill,” said New Jersey Right to Life (NJRTL) Executive Director Marie Tasy, according to the outlet.

“S2260 does not protect women. It protects the people who end the lives of living human children already growing in the womb. New Jersey should be a sanctuary for mothers and babies, not a legal fortress for those who profit from abortion,” Tasy added.

“I will take on whoever tries to mess with New Jerseyans’ healthcare – and follow the fight wherever it takes us – from the clinic to the courtroom,” Sherrill said.

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“With the signing of this enhanced shield law, we are further protecting reproductive and gender affirming care. Because if Republicans in Washington won’t, New Jersey will,” she added.

Watch below:

LifeNews.com has more:

S2260 extends protections to a wide array of procedures, treatments, medications, and services classified under state law as “reproductive health care.” It restricts out-of-state investigations, legal proceedings, and demands for records connected to those activities, insulating abortion providers from external scrutiny.

The bill also creates a new crime of “interference with reproductive health care services.” “Because terms such as “threat,” “intimidate,” and “coerce” are inherently subjective and rest on individual feelings, this language poses a serious danger to free speech,” said Tasy. “Peaceful sidewalk counseling, prayer, holding signs, or simply offering help and alternatives outside a facility can easily be labeled “intimidation” by someone who claims to feel threatened, leaving pro-life advocates open to criminal charges that are difficult to disprove and chilling constitutionally protected expression.”

“The use of the term ‘reproductive’ to describe abortion defies the very meaning of reproduction. Reproduction has already taken place once a child is conceived. Abortion does not advance reproduction; it ends the life of a living human child whose heart is already beating. Calling a procedure whose intended outcome is the death of that child “health care” is a perverse distortion of both language and reality.”

“This law is a deliberate act of defiance against the most basic human right — the right to life of every child in the womb with a beating heart,” Tasy said. “Governor Sherrill and her allies have chosen to put the full power of state government behind abortion while building walls to keep accountability out and they are now creating vague new criminal penalties that can be used to silence those who object to these radical policies. That is not compassion. That is blatant extremism. Women deserve meaningful support and genuine alternatives, not a state government focused on expanding protections for abortion.”

Watch Sherrill sign the legislation below:

“No mother should ever be told that the only solution to her crisis is the death of her child; a living human being with a beating heart,” Tasy said.

“We will not stand by while New Jersey turns abortion into a protected industry and criminalizes those who oppose it. We will fight for the day when every woman facing an unexpected pregnancy is met with practical support, genuine alternatives, and the unshakable truth that both her life and her child’s life are worth defending,” she continued.

NorthJersey.com shared further:

New Jersey has a long history of allowing access to abortions and public policy affecting transgender residents. Many New Jersey hospitals in recent years have opened centers where hormone therapy is a popular service. But there have been efforts to stop procedures, such as a bill introduced in 2022 that would criminalize hormone therapies and other treatment for transgender adolescents.

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The new law tackles several issues. At its center, it creates the crime of “interference with reproductive health care services,” in which transgender treatments are included.

Anyone who attempts to physically stop someone from entering a clinic or other medical office can be charged with a fourth-degree crime punishable by up to 18 months in prison and a fine of up to $10,000 under the new law. The sentences go up to a maximum of 10 years’ imprisonment and a fine of up to $150,000 if a victim is seriously injured.

New Jersey providers have seen a rise in the number of out-of-state women seeking abortions after 13 states enacted a total or near-total ban on abortions based on a U.S. Supreme Court decision in 2022 that overturned Roe v. Wade.

The new law bars any other state from seeking to arrest, extradite or subpoena a New Jersey provider. It also adds other safeguards to keep medical records private.

 

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