Watson Coleman: Women’s Reproductive Rights & Access to Care on the Ballot in Upcoming Election

EWING, NJ – Speaking at a press conference alongside Councilwoman Jennifer Keyes-Maloney, students from the College of New Jersey and Planned Parenthood Action Fund of NJ, Congresswoman Bonnie Watson Coleman today urged New Jerseyans to support candidates in the upcoming election that will support and strengthen women’s reproductive rights and remind Americans of the upcoming Open Enrollment Period beginning on November 1.

Watson Coleman said, “In Washington, DC, it seems like almost every month, if not more, we are entertaining legislation …designed to diminish a woman’s access to healthcare, a woman’s access to birth control, a woman’s access to the kind of decisions that she has a right to make. It has been persistent and consistent, it preceded this current president and become a more insidious and robust assault on women’s right to choose. Right here in New Jersey, next Tuesday, is an important election where we get to choose a governor who will respect us as women, respect our intellect and our capacity to make decisions and who has legitimate, verifiable credibility in these issues.”

Full remarks as delivered below:    

I must begin by reminding you that effective November 1, is the beginning of the enrollment for the Affordable Care Act. Contrary to the confusing messages that are coming out of this Administration, the Affordable Care Act is still the law and the coverage and protections that existed beforehand are still available. So anyone who needs to enroll or re-enroll needs to go to Healthcare.gov and make sure to get the information you need to have your healthcare. And to the students here, tell your parents as well, because unless you’re 26, you may very well be covered by them.

We’re here today to recognize that after almost eight years, women’s healthcare has been tremendously disrespected here in New Jersey, particularly with the consistent and persistent underfunding and defunding of Planned Parenthood or any of the healthcare centers that take care of women’s needs, whether those needs are contraceptives or whether those needs are scans and screenings for cancer, but even in areas in which Planned Parenthood was indeed the only access to healthcare for communities including some men.

Now we stand here with an important decision to make – we can elect a governor that fully understands and respects a woman’s right to choose and a woman’s capacity to make her own decisions when it comes to her healthcare. It is vitally important for us to link up the significance of what we are getting ready to do in New Jersey and how that is helpful in what they are doing in Washington DC. Particularly in Washington DC, it seems like almost every month, if not more, we are entertaining legislation and it’s actually passing in the [House], although you might not know about it because perhaps the Senate rejects it. But these bills are designed to diminish a woman’s access to healthcare, a woman’s access to birth control, a woman’s access to the kind of decisions that she has a right to make. It has been persistent and consistent, it preceded this current president but it has become a tremendously more insidious and robust assault on women’s right to choose. So we are here today with Planned Parenthood and on behalf of students and young women all over the state of New Jersey, to say that, coming up very shortly, next Tuesday, in fact, is an important election when we get to choose a governor who will respect us as women and respect our intellect and our capacity to make decisions and who has legitimate, verifiable credibility in these issues.

I know personally, having been a state legislator and now a federal legislator, that the Christie Administration including the current lieutenant governor who is running for governor have been silent and have allowed woman to suffer in a way that they did not need to in 2017. So we need not continue to fight for the fights that we thought we already had won, we need someone who will take us into the future, someone who recognizes that we are productive, we are brilliant, we are capable, we can make our own decisions and we need to be paid for the work that we do. So I am glad to be here with my partners and to say two things: number one, all over the state of New Jersey and any place else that you are, this little message, please go to Healthcare.gov and sign up for or re-enroll for the Affordable Care Act. And number two, for those of us in New Jersey, let us show this country that we can move this country in the right direction and elect a progressive candidates that will support all of us. Thank you very much!