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WASHINGTON — An international pro-life group is offering to foot the bill for activists who wind up in the crosshairs of a law signed by New Jersey Gov. Mikie Sherrill (D) last week to crack down on protests near abortion facilities.
40 Days For Life raised concerns that vague language in that bill about intimidation and threats could be stretched to target peaceful pro-lifers who want to pray for the unborn outside abortion centers.
“Prayer is not a crime. Holding a sign is not intimidation. Offering a woman help is not coercion,” the group’s CEO Shawn Carney told The Post. “This law is designed to scare people of faith off the sidewalks outside abortion facilities by creating the constant threat of prosecution and costly lawsuits.”
“We will not be intimidated,” he went on. “If the state tries to weaponize this law against constitutionally protected speech, our Institute of Law & Justice will be there to defend them at no cost.”
Carney’s group stressed that the protesters must have been engaged in peaceful activity in order to get its legal support.
The law in question, S2260/A2218, imposes criminal penalties on those who “injure, threaten, intimidate, or physically block patients or providers,” or do damage to property related to “reproductive healthcare services,” per a press release.
It also expanded the Garden State’s shield law to restrict Garden State facilities from cooperating with out-of-state investigations into New Jerseyans who violate their laws on transgender surgeries. That comes on top of New Jersey’s existing shield law for abortion.
40 Days for Life runs nine vigils in New Jersey annually, with an estimated 2,000 to 3,000 participants, The Post has been told.
But Sherrill’s office insists the new law won’t be weaponized against pro-life activists who are simply praying for an end to the controversial procedure.
“Of course peaceful prayer is protected,” the governor’s spokesperson Steve Sigmund told The Post. “This legislation protects patients and providers from threats to their safety, and defends the fundamental freedom to make personal healthcare decisions without fear or intimidation.”
“Nothing in this law prevents lawful, peaceful protest or the exercise of constitutionally protected speech,” he added. “What is not protected is violence, threats, intimidation, physical obstruction, or property damage intended to interfere with someone receiving or providing reproductive healthcare.”
Carney’s group plans to pay for peaceful activists who run afoul of the Garden State’s new law through 40 Days For Life’s legal arm, the Institute of Law & Justice. It plans to cover both civil and criminal litigation.
New Jersey is one of 10 states and DC that impose no gestational limit on abortion at any stage of a pregnancy.
That means women can get abortions well after the point at which they could induce a pregnancy and have a healthy baby, with no requirement for special circumstances.
Massachusetts recently joined that list by nixing its restrictions on abortion past 24 weeks of gestation, roughly the point by which most unborn babies can survive on their own outside the mother’s womb.
Nearly 93% of abortions are performed within the first 13 weeks of pregnancy, according to 2022 data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
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