Gov. Murphy signs bill ensuring woman’s right to an abortion in New Jersey

Gov. Phil Murphy has signed a bill enshrining the right to get an abortion into state law.
The governor signed the Freedom of Reproductive Choice Act into law on Thursday in Teaneck. It fulfills a campaign pledge made in the lead-up to his reelection victory in November and after it appeared as if the Democrat-led Legislature might fail to advance the bill.
Sponsors of the new law say that it will increase a woman’s access to contraceptives and to affordable reproductive health care.
“Everyone deserves the ability to make their own personal health choices and we also know it will promote the health and well-being of the people in our state, while showing the country and the world that New Jersey stands for compassion, dignity and freedom,” said former Democratic Assemblywoman Valerie Vainieri Huttle.
The law also states that restrictions on reproductive choice by the government interfere with what it says is a constitutional right to reproductive autonomy.
A Supreme Court ruling could come in June in a case in which the court was asked to overturn a nationwide right to abortion that has existed for five decades. The case has state legislatures across the country responding to the possibility of seismic changes to the 1973 Roe ruling.
The Associated Press wire services contributed to this report.