TRENTON, N.J. (AP) — New Jersey will construct up provides of abortion medication, Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy introduced Tuesday throughout his State of the State handle, whereas pledging to work with President-elect Donald Trump and warned that the state is able to repel the incoming administration.
Murphy is considered one of a handful of Democratic governors who criticized Trump in the course of the marketing campaign however now say they’re open to cooperation. However Murphy stated he wouldn’t budge on the “anti-choice” insurance policies championed by the Republican majority in Congress. He stated the state would stockpile mifepristone “so that each girl has entry to this important type of reproductive care.”
“I’ll by no means hand over my partnership with the Trump administration the place our priorities align,” Murphy stated throughout his handle earlier than a joint session of the Democratic-led Legislature. “However simply as importantly, I’ll by no means hand over on defending our New Jersey values — if and when they’re examined.”
New Jersey joins different Democratic-led states, together with Massachusetts and California, in stockpiling mifepristone, considered one of two medication utilized in mixture to terminate pregnancies.
Throughout an interview with NBC Information final month, Trump stated he had no plans to limit treatment abortions, but in addition appeared to go away the door open, saying “issues are altering.” Abortion rights teams are significantly involved that Trump’s decide for lawyer common, Pam Bondi, might revive the Comstock Act, an anti-vice regulation handed by Congress in 1873 that, amongst different issues, prohibits the sending by mail of medication or devices utilized in abortion.
Tuesday’s speech was Murphy’s penultimate, and he emphasised his reluctance to change into a lame-duck governor within the latter a part of his second time period. Amongst different proposals he unveiled, Murphy stated he would order faculties to ban cell telephones in grades Okay-12.
“Our youngsters are inundated with screens,” he stated. “And so they make it extraordinarily tough for our youngsters not solely to study, however to retain the substance of what they study.”
Murphy enters the ultimate 12 months of his second time period, coinciding with the daybreak of Trump’s second administration, simply as the beginning of his governorship overlapped with Trump’s first time period.
Murphy outlined himself as a progressive and ran for re-election as such. However his victory in 2021 was far narrower than many anticipated, and his get together’s losses within the Legislature led Democrats to refocus on affordability points like property tax aid.
“Throughout this newest chapter of our journey, our absolute high precedence — because it has been since Day One — is offering financial safety and alternative to each New Jersey resident,” Murphy stated.
Now, Murphy’s legacy — which features a lengthy record of laws due to the Democratic-led Legislature, reminiscent of tightening gun legal guidelines, legalizing leisure marijuana, taxing the rich and growing training funding — is ready towards the backdrop of a main election. of the Democratic Celebration.
With a restricted time period from searching for 4 extra years in workplace, Murphy will hand the reins of the get together to the eventual winner of this yr’s six-person race for governor. New Jersey and Virginia are the one two states repeatedly holding gubernatorial elections this yr.
Murphy’s imaginative and prescient for the state additionally aligns with the Democratic Celebration in search of a means ahead and a nationwide message to get out the vote after final yr’s loss to Trump and GOP victories, nonetheless slim, in Congress.
The speech, analogous to the president’s State of the Union handle however on the state degree, is a blueprint for the way the governor needs the yr to unfold.
Laws he pushed for final yr to bar debt collectors from disclosing sufferers’ medical money owed to client credit score reporting companies, for instance, handed. He additionally succeeded in getting laws to revise the inexpensive housing necessities which might be administered within the state.
However the speech can also spotlight how restricted the governor’s energy will be. Final yr he referred to as for laws to permit 16-year-olds to vote at school board elections. The measure has not superior within the Legislature, though he reiterated his name for the invoice on Tuesday. He additionally referred to as for an “synthetic intelligence moonshot.” Up to now, a process drive created by the governor has issued a report urging the state to embrace generative AI.
In June, the US Supreme Courtroom unanimously upheld entry to mifepristone, which is utilized in almost two-thirds of abortions. The lawsuit threatens to restrict entry to the drug, together with in states the place abortion is authorized. Abortion is prohibited in any respect phases of being pregnant in 14 states and after about six weeks of being pregnant in one other three, typically earlier than ladies know they’re pregnant.
