Gov. Mikie Sherrill signed legislation on Thursday that criminalizes interference with reproductive and transgender healthcare while barring a range of officials from aiding investigations spawned by states where such care is illegal.
The bill, which cleared both legislative chambers in party-line votes this June, bars the state from extraditing individuals facing out-of-state investigations over reproductive or gender-affirming care, expands existing confidentiality protections to such care, and expands safeguards for doctors and others who provide it.
Sherrill, a Democrat, took a shot at the Republican governors of Texas and Florida in her remarks during a bill signing ceremony outside a Planned Parenthood location in Montclair.
“If Greg Abbott or Ron DeSantis tries to investigate someone who came to New Jersey to access care, we will protect anyone seeking care that is legal here in New Jersey from investigations in other states,” she said.
State Sen. Teresa Ruiz (D-Essex), a chief sponsor of the bill and the Senate’s majority leader, said the bill signing shows that New Jersey is “a beacon of hope for everyone who understands democracy.”
“You can’t tell us what we can read on a library shelf but want to be up in our uterus in an exam room,” Ruiz said.
The new law, which became effective immediately upon its signing, creates a new criminal charge for individuals who physically block access to health care facilities that offer reproductive or transgender healthcare or who intentionally intimidate individuals away from such clinics.
Violators face criminal penalties ranging from up to 18 months to up to five years in prison if their obstruction caused a victim serious bodily harm. Such individuals would also be exposed to civil suits from the victim and the state.
Individuals who prevail in those suits could win at least $1,000 per violation, plus attorney’s fees, injunctive relief, and — if they can prove willful or reckless disregard for the law — punitive damages.
If the suit comes from a local, state, or county prosecutor, violators face a fine of up to $10,000 for a first offense and $25,000 for subsequent ones.
Simone Kraus, a transgender woman from Sussex County, called the new law “a profound milestone” for the fundamental right to bodily autonomy and human dignity. For too long, Kraus said, the lives of transgender people have been subject to shifting executive orders that left them wondering if a new governor would “pull the rug out from under us.”
“As a trans woman who has walked this path, who knows the deeply personal and necessary journey of receiving gender-confirmation surgery, this hits home in a way policies and legal briefs rarely can capture,” she said, adding, “New Jersey is making it clear today that what happens in a doctor’s office is strictly between the patients and the doctors. Politicians do not have a say.”
The new law’s supporters said the provisions are needed to blunt the Trump administration’s bids to block those seeking abortions and transgender healthcare. Among other things, the administration has sought to force the release of deanonymized emergency room records, subpoenaed the health records of transgender youth, and sought to gain access to systems that hospitals use to swap identifiable patient health records. It has also sought to block funding to hospitals that provide certain types of healthcare to transgender individuals.
“This isn’t just about abortion. Republicans in Washington are trying to control people’s lives. That’s why the White House has relentlessly attacked our transgender community as well,” Sherrill said. “They’ve pulled tactics straight out of the Red Scare playbook to restrict transgender people’s healthcare.”
The new law further bars state and local law enforcement from arresting or assisting in operations to arrest individuals seeking or providing reproductive or gender-affirming care unless their conduct also broke New Jersey law. It places similar limits on court-issued search warrants, wiretaps, and bounty hunters and expands a statutory bar on extradition for charges related to reproductive health services to include gender-affirming care.
It also bars state licensing boards from disciplining providers solely for providing such care.
On Thursday, the new law’s supporters framed its passage as a sorely needed boon for New Jerseyans and their health care providers.
“This is not a law that’s abstract. It has faces attached to it: the parent who postponed a visit who wasn’t sure it was safe; the nurse who second-guessed her own charting, thinking that maybe she was going to be caught up in a lawsuit at some point in time; the family doing the math about risk instead of thinking about their health,” Ruiz said, tearing up. “This is for all of you.”
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