Planned Parenthood Action Fund of New Jersey, the political arm of the healthcare/abortion provider, kicked their midterm election campaign into high gear this week with a series of events including fundraisers in Princeton and Neptune to support pro-abortion candidates on the ballot in New Jersey this year.

Jackie Cornell is PPAF-NJ’s newly-minted Executive Director.

”We’re here tonight kicking off our next three years of election work,” Ms. Cornell told InsiderNJ.

Since the Supreme Court’s rejection of Roe v Wade, abortion is outlawed (or will be outlawed) in 26 states, including half a dozen with no exception for rape or incest. It’s a radical vision: conservatives want to control when the rest of us start (or grow) our families and they won’t stop until every pregnancy in America is forced to term.

That’s why the abortion debate overwhelmingly favors democrats in a narrowly divided Senate and House of Reps.

New Jersey is widely considered a stronghold for reproductive choice, a distinction Ms. Cornell is keen to preserve.

”If Governor Phil Murphy was not in office and hadn’t done the work leading to the Dobbs decision and been such a champion after, New Jerseyans would be in a radically different place,” Ms. Cornell told InsiderNJ. “We say elections have consequences all the time then rally around November then we exhale and everyone forgets until Labor Day. We’ve got work to do for the next three years until we elect the next pro-choice Governor.”

According to Ms. Cornell, anti-abortion pols are just getting started and pro-choice voters must meet the challenge to defend abortion rights.

“We’ve seen (Republican) members of Congress pushing for a Federal abortive ban,” Mr. Cornell added. “Overturning Roe was not the beginning (for them) it was the beginning of the onslaught on abortion rights” and as addition to LGBTS issues and contraception.

One of the fiercest ballot showdowns anywhere in New Jersey pits Democratic Congressman Tom Malinowski against his GOP rival Tom Kean Jr in New Jersey’s ultra-competitive 7th Congressional District. This is a rematch of their 2020 dual, narrowly won by Mr. Malinowski. Subsequently, the once-a-decade redistricting process added some very conservative parts of Sussex County into the district.

Planned Parenthood’s Federal PAC will be figure prominently in that race, presumable highlighting Kean Jr’s obsequiousness to ex-Governor Chris Christie’s attack on abortion rights.

Monday’s fundraiser at the home of Democratic powerhouse Grace Power saw strong representation from Mercer County and beyond including State Treasurer Liz Muoio, Sen. Linda Greenstein, Asm. Dan Benson, Lawrence Councilwoman and County Commissioner Cathleen Lewis, Ewing Township Councilmembers Jennifer Keyes-Maloney and Sarah Steward, Trenton Council Candidate Tesla Frisby, Jeannine LaRue, Lawrence Chair and Hamilton Township Counsel Elissa Grodd-Schragger, WPCNJ President Jen Mancuso, Linda Schwimmer, Pearl Gabel, and RPA’s Zoe Baldwin.

“For the eight long years that Tom Kean spent doing Chris Christie’s bidding,” one partygoers hissed, “never once was Tom, as leader of the minority party, able to overturn one of Christie’s increasingly unpopular vetoes.”

She’s not wrong. Chris Christie left office as the most unliked governor in New Jersey history largely because of his attacks on a woman’s right to choose. And the entire time , Tom Kean Jr., rubberstamped Christie’s assault on issues that are broadly popular such gay marriage, marijuana legalization, and especially a woman’s right to choose.

“Tom Kean Junior is a follower at a time when we need a leader,” one insider added. “His eight years of fealty to the most unpopular governor in New Jersey history proves it.”

And this politically active crowd is eager to amplify Kean’s anti-choice track record from now until November.

“Elections have consequences,” Ms. Cornell told InsiderNJ. “And when I think about what’s at stake, it’s easy to put the game face on.”