Issues

Everyone should have the freedom to make their own personal health care decisions, and be able to access the care they need, without barriers, fears, or interference from others. In New Jersey, the right to abortion is protected in state law, but there is much more to do to ensure that everyone - no matter your identity, income, insurance coverage, or immigration status - can access care.

Protecting access to reproductive health services isn't just about keeping politicians from interfering with an individual's personal medical decisions. It also requires us to ensure that all patients have access to the reproductive health services they need, regardless of their income, insurance coverage, or immigration status. Ensuring strong and diverse family planning funding streams in our state is a priority for PPAFNJ.

From reproductive health care funding in the New Jersey state budget, to the federal Title X family planning program, to adequate reimbursement for our safety-net health centers through public insurance programs like Medicaid, policy that supports reproductive health care funding helps ensure that all New Jerseyans, regardless of income, have access to the critical reproductive health care they need, when they need it.

Protecting access to reproductive health services is a major goal for PPAFNJ. Still, we know that access to these services is only one part of ensuring reproductive freedom for New Jerseyans. True reproductive justice happens when all individuals can maintain control over their own bodies, have children, not have children, and parent their children in safe and sustainable communities.

We are a member of the Thrive New Jersey coalition, which uses a reproductive justice lens to advocate for intersectional issues that impact the health and lives of New Jerseyans. Our issues include abortion access, sex education, menstrual equity, maternal health, and more.

While New Jersey has some of the more comprehensive sex education standards in the nation, there is still much that needs to change to ensure that all New Jersey students receive the best sex education possible. This includes moving away from sex education requirements that stress abstinence and do not fully educate students on safer sex practices, which research shows can contribute to their risk of too-early pregnancy and infections.

Planned Parenthood Action Fund of New Jersey and partner organizations collaborated on New Jersey's Sex Ed Report Card, which highlight more ways progressive policy can help our state's young people get all the information and skills they need from trained educators in order to make healthy decisions and lead healthy lives.

All people should have equal access to health care. And yet people of color, immigrants, and LGBTQ+ people (especially those whose identities intersect) are disproportionately impacted by restrictions on that care. For many, due to our country’s long history of systemic racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, and classism, birth control and abortion are out of reach because of their income, where they live, or because their boss objects to it.

Reproductive health equity gives people the resources and access they need to have a
fair chance at sexual and reproductive well-being and autonomy. That means your race, ethnicity, gender, income, sexual orientation, immigration status, or neighborhood does not disadvantage you from accessing the quality and affordable health care services you need to live a life of reproductive health.

According to the CDC, Black women are up to four times more likely to die from pregnancy- related causes than non-Hispanic white women. New Jersey ranks 47th in maternal deaths and demonstrates some of the worst racial disparities between Black and white women in the U.S. We must invest in transforming our health care system to address the root causes of inequality and support pregnant people.

Quality health care must be accessible to all and requires transformational change to address a system that has a long history of especially failing Black and Latinx people and their babies. The good news is that New Jersey has successfully expanded Medicaid postpartum coverage to a year following birth in New Jersey. Our state has also, under the leadership of the First Lady, developed a comprehensive Nurture NJ Strategic Plan to improve maternal and infant health outcomes specifically focusing on the impact of racism within the health care system.