Rep. Tom Malinowksi Condemns Overturn Of Roe V. Wade

UNION COUNTY, NJ — Congressman Tom Malinowksi, representing NJ's 7th District, stressed his support for women's abortion rights, following the Supreme Court's decision to overturn the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision on Friday.

Malinowksi also warned voters about his opponent, Sen. Tom Kean Jr., who is running against him in this year's Congressional election. Although he describes himself as "pro-choice," Kean voted against a bill that enshrined abortion into New Jersey state law and repeatedly refused to overturn former Gov. Chris Christie's cuts to Planned Parenthood funding.

"If Tom Kean Jr. is elected and his party takes back control of Congress, they have made clear they will try to pass a nationwide abortion ban that will overturn our laws in New Jersey," Malinowksi wrote in a statement.

"Kean has one last chance now to prove to New Jersey’s women that he recognizes their full and equal rights — by pledging to support federal legislation restoring the settled law the Supreme Court shredded today. But as on every other issue, Kean will likely choose silence," Malinowski said.

The Congressman further stated, "We cannot go back to a time in America when women and doctors were treated as criminals or let our daughters grow up with fewer rights than their mothers and grandmothers. We have to elect a Congress that will protect a woman’s right to choose.”

Malinowski argued that the recent decision to overturn Roe v. Wade at the national level now allows states across the country to "mandate pregnancies for victims of rape and incest, and to punish women for crossing state lines to seeking necessary health care."

In many areas of the country, Malinowksi said women and doctors will face criminal prosecution for receiving abortion services, even when a woman's life is at risk.

"We will once again be living in a time when women risked their lives to obtain underground abortions," Malinowksi said.

In New Jersey, the state legislature passed and Gov. Murphy signed a law codifying Roe v. Wade earlier this year. But Malinowksi said women living, working and studying in other states will now be at risk.

"... Our law in New Jersey would be eviscerated if a future Republican majority in Congress passes a nationwide abortion ban – which Republicans tried to do repeatedly when they were in the majority before, and have already told us they will try to do again," the Congressman said.

He reminded voters that the stakes in the upcoming election have risen "exponentially."

"I support Roe v. Wade and will do everything in my power to enshrine it into federal law," Malinowksi said. "We must expand the majority in both Houses of Congress willing to do the same.”