TRENTON, NJ– New Jersey will build up a stockpile of drugs used in abortions, Democratic Governor Phil Murphy announced Tuesday during his State of the State address, as he pledged to work with President-elect Donald Trump and warned that the state is prepared to to exert pressure. against the new government.
Murphy is one of the a handful of Democratic governors who criticized Trump during the campaign and now say they are open to cooperation. But Murphy said he won’t back down in the face of the “anti-choice” policies supported by the Republican majority in Congress. He said the state will stockpile mifepristone “so that every woman has access to this crucial form of reproductive care.”
“I will never shy away from working with the Trump administration where our priorities are aligned,” Murphy said during his address to a joint meeting of the Democratic-led Legislature. “But just as importantly, I will never shy away from defending our New Jersey values – if and when they are tested.”
New Jersey joins others Democratic-led statesincluding Massachusetts and California in stockpiling mifepristone, one of two drugs used in combination to end pregnancies.
During an interview with NBC News last month, Trump said he has no plans to restrict medication abortion, but he also seemed to leave the door open and say “things are changing.” Abortion rights groups are particularly concerned about Trump’s choice for attorney generalPam Bondi, can the Comstock Actan anti-vice law passed by Congress in 1873 that, among other things, bans the mailing of drugs or instruments used in abortion.
Tuesday’s speech was Murphy’s penultimate, and he emphasized his unwillingness to become a lame-duck governor in the latter part of his second term. Among the other proposals he unveiled, Murphy said he would direct schools to ban cellphones in grades K-12.
“Our children are inundated with screens,” he says. “And they make it incredibly difficult for our children not only to learn, but to retain the content of what they learn.”
Murphy is entering the final 12 months of his second term, which coincides with the dawn of a second Trump administration, just as the start of his governorship overlaps with Trump’s first term.
Murphy has described himself as progressive and thus ran for re-election. But his 2021 victory was much smaller than many expected, and his party’s losses in the Legislature caused Democrats to refocus on affordability issues such as property tax cuts.
“On this final chapter of our journey, our absolute top priority – as it has been since day one – is providing economic security and opportunity to every New Jerseyan,” Murphy said.
Now Murphy’s legacy — which includes a long list of legislation thanks to the Democratic-led Legislature, such as tightening gun laws, legalizing recreational marijuana, taxing the wealthy and boosting education funding — is playing out against the backdrop of a Democratic party primary.
With term limits limited to seeking four more years in office, Murphy will hand the reins of the party to the eventual winner of a six-member field running for governor in this year’s election. New Jersey and Virginia are the only two states that regularly host gubernatorial races this year.
Murphy’s vision for the state also coincides with a Democratic Party looking for a path forward and a national message that will win big votes, after last year’s loss to Trump and the Republican Party’s victories, limited as they are , in Congress.
The speech, analogous to the union’s presidential state of the state address but at the state level, amounts to a blueprint for how the governor wants the year to unfold.
Legislation what he was looking for last year For example, it was decided to ban debt collectors from disclosing patients’ medical debts to consumer credit reporting agencies. He also succeeded in passing legislation regulating affordable housing requirements in the state.
But the speech could also underscore how limited the governor’s power can be. Last year he called for legislation to allow 16-year-olds to vote in school board elections. The measure has not yet been introduced in the Legislature, although he reiterated his call for the bill on Tuesday. He also called for an “artificial intelligence moonshot.” So far, the governor has created a task force released a report calling on the state to embrace generative AI.
The The U.S. Supreme Court unanimously upheld access in June to mifepristone, which is used in almost two-thirds of abortions. The court case threatened to limit access to the drug, including in states where abortion is legal. Abortion is banned in fourteen states at all stages of pregnancy, and in three others after about six weeks of pregnancy, often before women realize they are pregnant.