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A woman protests outside the Supreme Court in Washington, March 26, 2024.
In his 2025 State of the State address, New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy (D) announced plans to stockpile the abortion medication mifepristone “with direct-care partners for at least a six-month strategic reserve of medications.” New Jersey, one of nine states without a ban or a gestational limit on abortion, is the latest state to announce plans to ensure that women have access to abortion medication drugs. California, Massachusetts, New York, Oregon, and Washington state have already established reserves. New Jersey codified the right to an abortion and expanded access to birth control following the Dobbs decision.
Although Murphy has vowed to work with President Trump, he’s also promised to fight decisions that don’t align with New Jersey policies. Medication abortions accounted for 63 percent of the abortions performed in the United States in 2023, and the state’s stockpile is one component of an overall $50 million investment that the Murphy administration has made to improve reproductive health services. As concerns about reviving the moribund Comstock Act grow, the decision cements New Jersey’s status as a safe haven for reproductive freedoms.
New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy has vowed to work with President Trump, but also promised to fight decisions that don’t align with New Jersey policies.
Passed in 1873, the Comstock Act was a key tool in the era’s anti-vice campaign. The act criminalizes the mailing of “obscene or crime-inciting matter,” including every “article or thing designed, adapted, or intended for producing abortion, or for any indecent or immoral use.” But with this “zombie law” still on the books, many anti-abortion activists see it as a way to thwart the distribution of abortion medications like mifepristone and misoprostol and medical instruments used in surgical abortions. Violating the act is punishable by up to five years in prison, a fine, or both.
“The mention of wanting to ensure that there’s adequate supplies for abortion care in the state in the event that there is a misapplication of Comstock was welcomed,” says Kaitlyn Wojtowicz, the vice president of public affairs for Planned Parenthood Action Fund of New Jersey.
New Jersey passed the Freedom of Reproductive Choice Act in 2022, which guarantees the right to reproductive health care, including abortion. But Republicans have viewed the Comstock Act as a tool to ban abortion nationwide without resorting to congressional action, which has prompted states with total bans like Texas and Louisiana to go on the offensive.
While the Justice Department has not moved to enforce Comstock, Attorney General Pam Bondi has indicated that she would “love to work with” Tony Clayton, the district attorney for the Louisiana parishes of Iberville, West Baton Rouge, and Pointe Coupee, who was instrumental in charging a New York doctor for supplying and shipping abortion medication over state lines.
Gov. Murphy also wants to eliminate out-of-pocket costs for anyone who needs an abortion, a part of a nine-bill Reproductive Freedom and Health Equity package, which Planned Parenthood of New Jersey has been working on for the past few years. “We want to make sure that cost is never a barrier to someone seeking care, and that someone doesn’t have to choose between paying their rent or getting their reproductive health care,” Wojtowicz said.
Other proposals would ensure Medicaid coverage of emergency contraception, protect the privacy of patients and providers, assist students with reproductive health care, and remove medically unnecessary limitations on reproductive health providers. The bills are currently pending in the legislature.
Alejandra Sorto, a campaign strategist for the ACLU of New Jersey, said there’s a lot more that needs to be done. “We know that there’s going to be many attacks at the federal level: We saw it with the overturning of Roe; we saw it with the lawsuit challenging the FDA approval of mifepristone,” Sorto said. “We’re doing everything we can to ensure access right now to this care and tackle the attacks as they come.”
Meanwhile, the Democratic candidates vying to replace Murphy, including Reps. Mikie Sherrill, Rep. Josh Gottheimer, and Steve Sweeney, the former president of the state Senate, have called for an amendment to the state constitution that specifically protects abortion rights. Some reproductive rights advocates would prefer to concentrate on expanding access given the state’s already strong abortion protections; others see an amendment as a way to underline New Jersey’s commitment to keeping abortion legal.
