On Tuesday, May 21, residents from LD12 and LD30 protested attacks on women’s reproductive rights, stressing their concerns with Republican lawmakers’ recent bill addressing abortion. Assemblyman Rob Clifton and Assemblyman Ronald Dancer (LD12) and Assemblyman Sean Kean and Senator Sam Thomson (LD30) are co-sponsors of Personhood Legislation introduced in Trenton on May 12th.

The protesters joined thousands of Americans who held demonstrations across the country to protest the recent laws in several states, including Alabama, Ohio and Georgia, which enforce the tightest restrictions on abortion in the United States in decades.

The local protesters at both sites stressed that while they do not believe the Personhood Legislations will pass in New Jersey, they feel people should let their representatives know that women should have agency over their own bodies and that women’s health should be prioritized.

These protests were a part of a #StoptheBan Movement organized by Indivisible groups and Planned Parenthood.

A Planned Parenthood petition says in part, “Banning abortion at six weeks means banning abortion before many people even know they’re pregnant. …It’s the point of these dangerous and unconstitutional bans. Roe v. Wade affirmed the constitutional right to abortion more than four decades ago — and we won’t stand by while you gut our right to control our own bodies. We will fight back against each and every attempt to block people from accessing health care. We will work to make sure anybody who needs an abortion can get one. And we won’t stop until you get the message that politicians belong nowhere near the exam room.”