today marks the second anniversary of the US Supreme Court overturning roie Wade in the wake of that decision New Jersey's taken several steps to guarantee reproductive Health Access not just for New Jersey residents but those coming here from other states for care and today to Mark the two-year anniversary Senate Majority Leader Tessa Ruiz has introduced a new batch of bills that she says will safeguard reproductive and bodily autonomy rights in New Jersey Raven Santana has more on the bills and what they would provide [Music] in fact we saw in states where abortions are now illegal 171,000 women leave their homes to travel the other states it's been two years since the Supreme Court overturned roie Wade and here New Jersey lawmakers like Senator Teressa Ruiz are making sure that the decisions about a woman's body life and future remain solely hers which is why she introduced nine bills under the reproductive free freedom and Health Equity Bill package it comes four years after Governor Murphy signed a bill called the freedom of reproductive Choice act which codified the right to an abortion into state law we parsed and separated each of the bills because this was a huge package that was dropped in 2020 and it hasn't moved so in an effort to be sure that we keep chipping away at human protection rights we've divied up and separated the bills the new package of bills includes regulations for providers Insurance patients and providers rights grants to strengthen access to reproductive health care and data privacy to ensure confidentiality for those receiving reproductive Health Services it also includes guidance for universities to require the implementation of reproductive Health Services the bills would also seek to increase the number of providers in the state who care for patients requiring reproductive health care services and finally they address charitable donations to provide equitable access to all residents and emergency contraception access lawmakers and Advocates say the goal is to ensure that reproductive Health Care is protected for generations to come and where's the government's role in this they don't care what you do after uh that has happened they don't seem to want to give you any money for that but they also want to ban you from taking uh choices and responsibilities uh that you're looking to do right at the beginning of your life uh in many terms early parts of women's lives we have to look at the state of New Jersey under the worst case scenarios what if the administration changes to someone who's dramatically far thinking from what we're thinking today what if the assembly and the legislature are aligned what protections do we have in place Ruiz and Senate President Nick scar sentiments were echoed by Congressman Mikey Cheryl and Democratic nominee for New Jersey 7eventh congressional district Sue Alman who joined Advocates and organizers in rawe to stress the critical import importance of abortion rights and Women's Health but Sean Highland of the New Jersey policy Center says the overturning of roie Wade is a step in the right direction the goal is the same to protect the sanctity of human life in the moment of conception how that looks next five years 10 years or 50 years no one really knows it took almost 50 years to see Ro overturn and 50 years from now there's still a great work ahead of us here in our state and across our nation to educate voters on the issue to educate legislators on the issue and so to force people to pay for abortion procedures that they have really strong moral uh you know objections to is a violation of conscious rights and and religious rights it's one thing to try to have access women seeking an abortion but to make everyone else pay for that decision that really is a step too far it's a step that Senator Ruiz says she is willing to take as she now wants to push forward a constitutional amendment to protect the right to abortion in the state of New Jersey Ruiz says she and the Senate president will be putting forth the insurance bill today in the budget committee aligning with the governor's budget message eliminating co-pay for Reproductive and gender reaffirming services for NJ Spotlight news I'm Raven Santana [Music]