In April, Democratic Rep. Josh Gottheimer called a press conference in entrance of a Deliberate Parenthood workplace in northern New Jersey to announce new laws designed to guard ladies.
Gottheimer, who was broadly recognized to be planning a run for governor, stated the invoice was in response to a push by anti-abortion teams to make use of the 151-year-old Comstock Act to ban the mailing of mifepristone — a drug used to induce abortions and deal with miscarriages.
“Let’s be clear: with out entry to secure and authorized reproductive well being care, ladies will die,” Gottheimer stated on the time.
However eight months later, the congressmember, who formally launched his gubernatorial marketing campaign final month, has nonetheless not launched the laws, the Defending Private, Non-public Medical Choices Act. And the draft that his workplace offered to POLITICO is a non-binding decision — an expression of sentiment that has no power of legislation.
Gottheimer’s workplace informed POLITICO that the delay is as a result of complexity of the court docket fights round abortion entry.
“Josh has been working carefully with legislative counsel on technical features of this laws, and plans to introduce it when it’s totally prepared,” Gottheimer Communications Director Zachary Florman stated in an announcement.
The truth that Gottheimer has but to introduce the invoice after publicly saying he has comes amid an intensifying gubernatorial race with six declared Democrats. He’s been a pacesetter of moderates in Washington and, whereas will probably be a bonus in a basic election for governor, he’s developing towards extra liberal Democrats and might want to attraction to a extra progressive voting bloc.
It additionally comes as Gottheimer grapples with the fallout of a viral scandal over his publishing a fake screenshot purporting to be his Spotify “Wrapped” for 2024 — a abstract of his most-listened to songs. His fabricated “Wrapped” confirmed his prime 5 songs as hits from Bruce Springsteen. However his admission that it was faked led to widespread mockery.
Gottheimer — one in all Congress’ most energetic inventory merchants — additionally promised in 2022 to put his assets in a blind trust. That has but to occur, although Gottheimer’s workplace stated they way back submitted blind belief proposals to the Home Ethics Committee, which they stated has repeatedly delayed approving it.
Gottheimer touted his “introduction” of the abortion-related invoice a number of instances in fundraising emails and referred to his “new laws to face up for a lady’s proper to decide on — together with defending entry” whereas selling his upcoming appearances on social media.
“Once I first ran for Congress, I ran towards an anti-choice extremist with a promise to all the time defend reproductive freedom,” a Gottheimer gubernatorial marketing campaign fundraising e mail from this month stated. “I’ve launched laws just like the Defending Private, Non-public Medical Choices Act to sentence restrictions on reproductive well being care.”
In a September voter information on NJ Highlight Information, Gottheimer wrote: “I’ve launched two items of laws, the ‘Freedom to Determine Act’ and the ‘Defending Private, Non-public Medical Choices Act,’ each of which shield entry to Mifepristone and help telemedicine throughout state traces, so docs can prescribe it wherever ladies are in want of care.”
The April 9 press convention in Hackensack attracted consideration throughout the area, incomes him protection on most New York Metropolis tv information stations. That helped him burnish his pro-abortion rights bona fides forward of his anticipated run within the Democratic main for governor.
“Josh has additionally helped introduce different laws defending Mifepristone, together with the Freedom to Determine Act,” Florman stated. “Due to what’s on the road for girls’s well being care, and the continuing court docket battles, we need to make certain we get all choice-related laws precisely proper. We will by no means do sufficient to guard reproductive freedom, and Josh has an extended file of standing with pro-choice teams to tackle the unconventional proper in protection of reproductive freedom.”
The “Freedom to Determine Act” — a concurrent decision that might even be non-binding — was introduced by Gottheimer together with two different members on April 13.
Gottheimer does have an extended file on different abortion points, together with a 2023 campaign to close down anti-abortion “disaster being pregnant facilities” that he alleges pose as reliable well being care facilities. And he has co-sponsored dozens of payments and resolutions geared toward defending or increasing entry to abortion and reproductive care since taking workplace.
The push to guard mifepristone seemingly misplaced some urgency following the Supreme Courtroom’s June decision to throw out a lawsuit in search of to roll again entry to the drug, although the choice was procedural and didn’t deal with the deserves of the case. Some pro-abortion rights advocates have expressed concerns that making an attempt to repeal elements of the Comstock Act might elevate its profile and undermine the Biden administration’s authorized argument that it’s unenforceable.
A spokesperson Deliberate Parenthood New Jersey didn’t reply to a cellphone name in search of remark.
