NJ Passes Contraception, Abortion Drug Mandate

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TRANSCRIPT

A New Jersey bill forcing religious employers to provide insurance for contraceptives and abortion-inducing drugs was passed on Thursday.

Executive Director of New Jersey Right to Life, Marie Tasy, told Church Militant, "There is no reason to take away religious exemption. This has been a long-standing protection in New Jersey law. We are urging individuals to contact New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy to tell him to veto the bill."

Bishop James Checchio of Metuchen, who has a reported history of supporting homosexual clergy, asked Catholics in his diocese to protest the bill in December: "They are going to require us to pay for drugs that cause abortions, sterilizations — things like that which go against our fundamental beliefs, our religious beliefs."

But some Catholics in New Jersey were underwhelmed with the minimal involvement of Bp. Checchio and the other bishops in the state.

One Catholic involved in a Rosary rally protesting the bill, along with a vaccine bill that has been delayed, told Church Militant: "Anyone can send out an e-mail or make a statement about these evils, but are you willing to be in the trenches with us? And where were you all along preaching about the evils of contraception and abortion?"

The Rosary rally occurred in front of the State Capitol in Trenton the day the bill was passed.

No Catholic clergy attended.

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