Democratic gubernatorial candidates in New Jersey are aiming to run on a platform that would enshrine abortion rights in the state’s constitution despite facing limited backing from prominent abortion rights advocates.
The front-runner, Rep. Mikie Sherrill (D-NJ), and former Senate President Steve Sweeney are both making promises to enshrine abortion rights in the state constitution.
“I strongly support enshrining the right to an abortion in New Jersey’s state constitution to permanently protect reproductive freedom,” Sherill shared on her campaign website. “Despite laws in place to protect access to care, too often women in New Jersey face additional barriers in getting care. New Jersey must take action to require comprehensive insurance coverage for all reproductive health care services, including abortion.”
Meanwhile, Sweeney touted his sponsorship of the “Freedom of Reproductive Choice Act” on his campaign website. The bill “guaranteed all New Jerseyans the right to make their own decisions about birth control, abortion, and prenatal care.”
“I support a constitutional amendment to protect a woman’s reproductive freedom in New Jersey because a woman should have the right to make her own decisions about her body,” Sweeney wrote.
However, abortion rights groups such as ACLU New Jersey and Planned Parenthood Action Fund of New Jersey don’t share the same enthusiasm for this initiative, given the precedent set by the state’s Supreme Court that already protects abortion access in the state. Instead, the abortion-rights groups are hoping Democratic leadership will support legislation that will make abortion access more equitable for lower-income New Jersey residents.
“A state constitutional amendment that only maintains the status quo is unnecessary, and without a careful, deliberative process, a ballot measure risks creating uncertainty in the legal landscape and undermining existing rights,” ACLU-NJ Deputy Policy Director Jim Sullivan said in a statement to Politico.
The entire state Senate and Assembly were up for reelection in 2023, during which Democrats were considering including a constitutional amendment for abortion on the ballot. However, Democrats failed to receive strong backing from abortion advocates.
The governor doesn’t have much influence on ballot initiatives that would enshrine abortion rights in the constitution. The state legislature must pass a resolution two years in a row with a simple majority or in one year with a supermajority. After this, the proposal must be voted on by constituents.
Ultimately, the race for governor would serve as a litmus test in determining how important abortion is to New Jersey residents. Since the overhaul of Roe v. Wade, which ended federal protection of abortion, Democrats have latched on to abortion rights measures as a way of motivating constituents to make it to the polls.
During the 2024 election, then-Vice President Kamala Harris leaned heavily on abortion rights, according to Dan Cassino, a professor of government and law at Fairleigh Dickinson University.
“At the top of the ticket, abortion is a major issue that leaks down to the rest of the ticket. It is mobilizing voters who otherwise wouldn’t have come out to vote,” Cassino told the New Jersey Monitor in September 2024. “
Meanwhile, Republican gubernatorial candidate Bill Spadea isn’t making rolling back abortion rights a part of his campaign, saying in a radio interview that he doesn’t “see any foreseeable change in the future of taking away a woman’s right to choose.”
However, there is concern that creating an abortion rights measure in New Jersey may attract the attention of major conservative donors.
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“Honestly, I think it’s a little performative. … The last thing we need is Elon Musk pumping $100 million in a ballot issue in New Jersey,” civil rights attorney Nancy Erika Smith told Politico.
In conservative states like Missouri and Montana, abortion rights amendments passed, possibly indicating that New Jersey would also see success in enshrining abortion rights in the state constitution.
