Governor hopefuls spar over abortion on anniversary of Supreme Court ruling

Rep. Mikie Sherrill, the Democratic nominee for governor, used the third anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision overturning the federal right to abortion Tuesday to attack Republican nominee Jack Ciattarelli and warn voters that he would “take away rights from women across the state.”

With President Donald Trump further restricting reproductive rights in his second term, abortion is an issue that could motivate voters in New Jersey’s gubernatorial race, political observers say — if the candidates frame it the right way.

Alyssa Maurice, research director at Stockton University’s William J. Hughes Center for Public Policy, said Sherrill’s potential focus on abortion in her campaign to succeed Gov. Phil Murphy in January could be successful if she pins down Ciattarelli as being anti-abortion rights and the state’s Republicans try to avoid the topic.

But that could be a struggle for Sherrill, Maurice said.

“The challenge they’re going to face is that they have to fight against a sort of apathy on this issue for New Jersey voters in particular, because New Jersey voters sort of feel immune to some of the federal changes because they feel like abortion is safe here,” said Maurice.

Sherrill, speaking to reporters Tuesday, painted her Republican opponent as a “Trump lackey” and a threat to the rights she said she’s fought to protect during her time in Congress. Sherrill supports adding abortion rights to the state’s constitution.

“Jack opposed allowing women to receive 12 months of contraception coverage. He supported Chris Christie’s budgets that defunded Planned Parenthood. He said as governor he would defund Planned Parenthood, and he said he would sign an abortion ban,” Sherrill said. “So, with one stroke of a pen, Jack could begin to take away the freedom we know and love right here in New Jersey.”

Sherrill, who was endorsed Tuesday by the Planned Parenthood Action Fund of New Jersey, also warned that Ciattarelli intends to elect far-right members to the state Supreme Court, where they could upend reproductive rights in the Garden State.

When Ciattarelli ran for governor in 2021, he said he would sign a bill protecting abortion rights if the U.S. Supreme Court struck down Roe v. Wade (that decision came the following year). He also says getting an abortion should be a decision that’s between a woman, her family, her doctors, and her faith, with some “reasonable” exceptions and restrictions.

Ciattarelli could not be reached to comment Tuesday. On social media, he criticized Sherrill’s comments as “wrong (and predictably dishonest) again.”

“My pro-choice position on abortion up to 20 weeks has been clear and consistent. I encourage anyone to go read my website,” he said.

Ciattarelli said his appointees to the state Supreme Court would be focused on “the disastrous school funding formula and mandated ‘affordable’ housing.”

Maurice said Ciattarelli’s move to shift the focus from abortion is one that will likely play out during the general election. She noted he has a “more difficult challenge ahead when it comes to this issue.”

In October, a Stockton University poll found a majority of New Jersey voters (73%) said abortion should be legal in all or most cases, while 1 in 5 said it should be illegal in most or all cases. It also said, one month before last year’s presidential race, that 73% of voters said a candidate’s views on abortion would impact their vote. Maurice noted those results are consistent with polling from previous years and consistent across gender and political affiliation.

Though Democrat Kamala Harris won New Jersey in 2024, abortion was not enough of a driver for Democrats to prevent Trump’s reelection. The strategy on the Democratic side this time, Maurice said, could be to tie abortion to kitchen table issues that took the forefront in the 2024 presidential election, like the economy and the rising cost of living.

“We’ll probably see that as a strategy as well to be able to relate this to independents who are not as energized by abortion on its own,” she said.

State Sen. Teresa Ruiz (D-Essex), during Sherrill’s call with reporters Tuesday, emphasized the potential consequences of electing a Republican governor in New Jersey, given that the GOP controls Congress and the White House.

“How much greater than to have a woman who understands that we are capable of making our own decisions with our own medical professionals in a private setting, without the threat of having a constitution that eliminates that right for us,” Ruiz said.