While abortion has been an ongoing campaign issue for political candidates from coast to coast since the U.S. Supreme Court fallen over Roe v. Wade in 2022, it has barely become a blip in New Jersey’s race to replace term-limited Gov. Phil Murphy.
That’s partly because New Jersey leaders have since implemented strict abortion protections, observers say. Abortion rights advocates rank New Jersey at or near the top when it comes to reproductive rights, while the Murphy administration has declared the state a safe haven for those requesting or offering the procedure.
It also comes as both leading candidates for governor of New Jersey have said they support abortion rights. Rep. Mikie Sherrill (D) said she supports current state protections that allow abortion without pregnancy limits, while Jack Ciatarelli (R) supports the procedure up to 20 weeks. The two will compete for Murphy’s job on November 4, 2025.
Ashley Koning, director of the Eagleton Center for Public Interest Polling at Rutgers University, said affordability and taxes have increasingly displaced abortion as a priority for voters, both in recent surveys and last year’s surveys. general elections.
“I don’t really see a problem if abortion continues in recent weeks,” Koning said. “In the end it’s always the economy, stupid.” That is what New Jersey voters will care about when it comes to this Jersey-centric statewide election.”
Advocates on both sides of the fight for reproductive rights agree that the abortion landscape could look very different in New Jersey under a Republican governor, with Ciatarelli promising to defund Planned Parenthood, fund anti-abortion pregnancy centers, require parental notification for minors seeking abortions, and pass an account now stalled in the New Jersey Statehouse that would largely ban abortion after twenty weeks.
Abortion rights advocates fear the state’s gubernatorial trends could prevail and hand Ciatarelli victory. It has been more than 60 years since both parties won the governorship three elections in a row, as Sherrill is trying to do this year.
“We are preparing for both scenarios, whether there is a Mikie Sherrill governor or Jack Ciatarelli is elected governor,” said Kaitlyn Wojtowicz, executive director of the Planned Parenthood Action Fund of New Jersey. “With Jack Ciatarelli as governor, we could be facing some very serious issues… for us, this is one of the most consequential elections of, I will say, my lifetime, in terms of what the future of access to reproductive health care could look like in New Jersey, especially with the threats at the federal level.”
President Donald Trump and his administration have moved block Medicaid funds from Planned Parenthood, forgive anti-abortion activists charged with federal crimes for blocking access to clinics, and threatened access to contraception, among other things.
Where the candidates stand
Sherrill has been a steadfast supporter of abortion rights, appearing at rallies and press conferences to advocate for reproductive rights, introducing legislation in Congress to protect access to abortion and in vitro fertilization (IVF) for military women, and consistently voting to preserve access to abortion.
Asked by the New Jersey Monitor If she supports any restrictions on the procedure, she said: “This is a decision that should be made between a woman and her doctor.”
“I’m pro-choice,” she said.
Sherrill twice voted in favor of the Women’s Health Protection Act, which ultimately failed but would have codified the abortion rights enshrined in the law. Roe v. Wade. If elected governor, Sherrill said she would include abortion rights in the New Jersey Constitution.
“Jack wants a ban on abortion. He also supports defunding Planned Parenthood. All of these things could lead to increasingly poor health for women in our state,” Sherrill said. “I think what we really need is constitutional protection, so it doesn’t matter who the governor is, women are protected in our state.”
A Ciatarelli campaign spokesman led the campaign New Jersey Monitor on its website, which says the decision to terminate a pregnancy is “deeply personal” and “should be between a woman, her partner, her faith and her health care providers.”
But Ciatarelli has also said he supports repealing the Freedom of Reproductive Choice Act, the 2022 state law that codified abortion rights in New Jersey, and the passage of the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act, a bill introduced every legislative session since 2016 that would ban abortion after 20 weeks, except in cases of rape or incest or when the mother’s life is in danger. New Jersey is one of nine states that allow abortion at any time during pregnancy, according to the Guttmacher Institute, a research organization that supports abortion rights.
Last month, Ciatarelli brought up abortion at a town hall in southern New Jersey in response to a question about the rights parents have over their children’s health care decisions. He said he would ban people under the age of 18 from having abortions without parental consent.
“Here in the state of New Jersey, children are not allowed to have their ears pierced if they are under the age of 18, without what? Their parents’ permission,” he said. “We’re going to have 15- and 16-year-olds getting abortions, and the parents aren’t being notified? I have yet to find even the most liberal person who agrees with that policy position.”
He has also echoed the Trump administration’s calls to defund Planned Parenthood, saying he opposes the use of public funds for abortion and would redirect that money to anti-abortion pregnancy centers. The administration of New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy remains embroiled in a legal battle with a group of these centers, who have taken on a challenge a state investigation whether they use misleading advertising to lure pregnant patients who may be considering an abortion.
’20/20 project’
Anti-abortion advocates gathered at the Statehouse in Trenton, the state capital, last month for the New Jersey March for Life.
The march took place just forty days before the general election, but most speakers made no mention of the election or Ciatarelli. That didn’t surprise Marie Tasy, head of New Jersey Right to Life.
“He says he’s pro-choice,” Tasy told the newspaper New Jersey Monitor. Her group endorsed conservative radio host Bill Spadea in the GOP primary.
Brennan Coughlin, pastor of Fellowship CrossPoint Church in central New Jersey, said he is “disappointed” by Ciatarelli’s abortion stance.
“I didn’t vote for him in the primaries. I voted for Bill Spadea, who is much clearer and stronger on protecting babies in the womb,” said Coughlin, who has regularly attended anti-abortion rallies. “But I will certainly vote for Jack Ciatarelli knowing that Mikie Sherrill, from my perspective, would continue Governor Murphy’s policies that we do not support and strongly oppose.”
Michael D. Byrne sees such sentiments as a failure of reporting, not a gap in enthusiasm.
Byrne is a Republican and a member of the New Jersey Pro-Life Alliance, a group formed after the spring primary to mobilize voters on the abortion issue. They are planning an advertising campaign in the coming weeks to let anti-abortion voters know that Ciatarelli is their man, Byrne said.
While some abortion critics oppose the procedure at any stage of pregnancy, a 20-week ban has proven so tolerable in anti-abortion circles that a coalition of New Jersey advocates launched an initiative in 2017 called 20/20 project to push for such a ban in 2020.
“It’s one of those 80/20 positions in politics where the vast majority of voters, when they have time to think about late-term abortion versus early abortion, agree that there should be some limits,” Byrne said. (Editor’s note: Normally Rewire Newsgroup’The company’s policy is to describe abortions after 24 weeks and later as “late abortions,” because “late abortion” not an accepted medical term. Here we have preserved the language in the quote for transparency.)
Byrne has much more enthusiasm for Ciatarelli than Tasy and Coughlin.
“We’re happy that we finally have a candidate who is a serious candidate — who will probably win at this point, I think — and who will support the 20-week law, as well as other common-sense issues like parental notification and ending taxpayer funding of abortion,” Byrne said.
Abortion rights advocates hope the schism in the anti-abortion community will help Ciatarelli’s chances.
Wojtowicz said undecided voters need only look back to the tenure of former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie for a reminder of what the state could look like under Ciatarelli. Christie repeatedly has vetoed funding for family planningforcing at least six clinics to close. In addition to abortion, such clinics also offer patients screening for sexually transmitted infections and cancer, as well as preventive services including contraception, Wojtowicz said.
“We’ve been here before and we know what to expect under Ciatarelli’s governorship. It would be devastating for public health,” she said.
Jeanne LoCicero, legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union of New Jersey, said the next governor should not meddle in issues of bodily autonomy.
“Everyone should be able to get the reproductive health care they need, and that includes abortion care, and they should be able to get that care when they need it and without interference from politicians,” LoCicero said. “So New Jersey should provide protections for patients seeking abortion care and other reproductive care, not create barriers. These are decisions that should be made together with patients and physicians, not by lawmakers.”
This story was originally reported by Dana DiFilippo for the New Jersey Monitor on October 8, 2025. New Jersey Monitor is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. New Jersey Monitor maintains editorial independence. If you have any questions, please contact editor Terrence T. McDonald: [email protected].
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