New Jersey punishes prayer outside abortion clinics

The governor of New Jersey, Mikie Sherrill, signed into law on 20 August 2026 a bill (S2260/A2218) making it a criminal offense to « interfere with reproductive health services ». The text punishes the infliction of « emotional harm » on anyone who seeks or provides these « services », bans the filming and publishing of images within a radius of about a hundred feet (thirty metres) of an abortion clinic, and authorizes a police officer to order the immediate dispersal of any gathering that « substantially impedes » access to a « reproductive or gender-affirming health » facility. Violations carry up to eighteen months in prison and a ten thousand dollar fine.

Its opponents see in it a weapon against peaceful prayer and counsel on the public sidewalk. The director of New Jersey Right to Life, Marie Tasy, denounces « a serious danger to freedom of speech », resting on « inherently subjective » criteria: « Peaceful sidewalk counseling, praying, holding a sign, or simply offering help and alternatives outside a facility can readily be branded intimidation by someone who claims to feel threatened, exposing pro-life advocates to criminal charges hard to rebut and chilling expression protected by the Constitution. »

The governor, on the contrary, defends a protection of patients and providers: « No one should fear intimidation or violence while seeking care, and no health professional should fear being punished by another state for providing lawful care in New Jersey. With this law, we state clearly that New Jersey will protect patients, providers, and the fundamental freedom to make personal health decisions. » The disagreement is not about the facts but about the reach of the text, and that is where it must be read. New Jersey is one of nine American states that set no gestational limit on abortion.

What the Church has always held

The child in the womb is a man, and to take his life is homicide. The Catechism of the Council of Trent, expounding the fifth commandment « Thou shalt not kill », ranks among murderers those who attack this life, and teaches that this precept does not only forbid killing: it also commands that we protect the life of our neighbor. Scripture makes it a positive duty: « Deliver them that are led to death: and those that are drawn to death, forbear not to deliver » (Proverbs, XXIV, 11).

To pray in public, to warn, to offer help and a way out to a mother tempted to kill her child is no nuisance: these are the spiritual works of mercy — to counsel the doubtful, to admonish sinners, to pray for the living — that charity imposes. Our Lord Himself commanded « that we ought always to pray and not to faint » (St Luke, XVIII, 1).

The measure against tradition

A law that protects access to abortion protects access to a killing; and one that threatens prison for the man who prays or pleads on the sidewalk strikes precisely at the work of mercy. The « emotional harm » felt by the one who goes to have a child killed becomes the standard, and the duty to deliver the innocent becomes the crime. This is to invert the law: to place the murderous act under the guard of the State and the one who pleads under lock and key.

We pronounce nothing on persons or on consciences; we measure the act. Measured against the fifth commandment, it deepens the blood already shed by silencing those who would spare it. Of the faithful, tradition asks neither fury nor despair, but to hold fast: to pray, to help, to tell the truth about the life of the child, and to accept that truth if it costs.

Sources. Catechism of the Council of Trent (1566), explanation of the fifth commandment « Non occides ». Holy Scripture, according to the Vulgate: Proverbs XXIV, 11; Exodus XX, 13; Gospel according to St Luke XVIII, 1.