Dear Parishioners,
I'm just catching up with several e-mails from our bishop. He recently wrote about the New Jersey "Reproductive Freedom Act". He wants us to be aware. When the NJ legislature starts to discuss it, we'll ask you to take action at that time. Here is the bishop's statement.
God love you,
Fr. Jim
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The proposed New Jersey “Reproductive Freedom Act” (S3030 / A4848) is another legislative attempt to advance and expand the state’s “abortion agenda” in service to the widespread “culture of death” by eliminating the few remaining state regulations intended to protect the life and health of pregnant mothers. New Jersey already has some of the most permissive abortion legislation in the country. The “Reproductive Freedom Act,” if passed, would guarantee a woman’s right to an abortion anywhere in the State of New Jersey. That is the “freedom” it seeks to legislate.
Eleanor Roosevelt once wrote, “Freedom makes a huge requirement of every human being. With freedom comes great responsibility.” The freedom to deliberately terminate at will and with full legal protection the life of an unborn child in the womb brings with it a responsibility, an accountability, that is difficult to imagine, let alone justify.
The State of New Jersey has already legislated its disregard for human life from conception to natural death many times, last year approving the “Death with Dignity Act” to help accelerate the end of life. The current proposed legislation, under the guise of “reproductive freedom,” shifts that disregard to the earliest, most vulnerable stages of human life in the womb. How many such deaths has that “freedom” brought in the United States since Roe v. Wade? How many more deaths will this legislation bring about in New Jersey? With the freedom to terminate innocent human life in the womb, who bears responsibility? Whose life is next?
Eleanor Roosevelt once wrote, “Freedom makes a huge requirement of every human being. With freedom comes great responsibility.” The freedom to deliberately terminate at will and with full legal protection the life of an unborn child in the womb brings with it a responsibility, an accountability, that is difficult to imagine, let alone justify.
The State of New Jersey has already legislated its disregard for human life from conception to natural death many times, last year approving the “Death with Dignity Act” to help accelerate the end of life. The current proposed legislation, under the guise of “reproductive freedom,” shifts that disregard to the earliest, most vulnerable stages of human life in the womb. How many such deaths has that “freedom” brought in the United States since Roe v. Wade? How many more deaths will this legislation bring about in New Jersey? With the freedom to terminate innocent human life in the womb, who bears responsibility? Whose life is next?