By Margie Donlon and Luanne Peterpaul

March is Women’s History Month so it seems fitting to discuss some of our bills to protect women’s access to health care and reproductive care.

Access to affordable healthcare for everyone has been and will continue to be a top priority in our Legislative District 11 office. The importance of healthcare accessibility was part of many of our conversations with residents attending our annual LD11 Women's History Month Celebration, Monday, at the Parlor Gallery in Asbury Park.

Unfortunately, we live in a time when healthcare access in general is under attack, being diminished by the federal government slashing funding to critical programs such as Medicaid, which funds NJ Family Care. The state’s public healthcare coverage program, NJ FamilyCare, insures nearly 2 million residents. 

NJ FamilyCare also covers the cost of 40 percent of the babies born here. Some people will lose coverage entirely thanks to the massive overhaul of the federal- and state-funded program that President Trump signed last summer. State healthcare experts have said this will cost New Jersey more than $3 billion in federal funding in the years ahead and could leave 360,000 Medicaid members uninsured. 

The cuts have a disproportionate impact on women.

Among the healthcare bills we have sponsored and cosponsored this year, is legislation to secure protections for patients and providers accessing and providing legally protected health care services, which are restricted in other states. We have cosponsored this bill that establishes protections for individuals seeking reproductive healthcare or healthcare aligned with a person’s identity, as well as protections for professionals who provide those health care services. Our LD11 partner, Senator Vin Gopal, has cosponsored the bill in the Senate.

Another of our bills would prohibit workplace discrimination based on menstruation, perimenopause, and menopause. This bill expands civil rights protections under the New Jersey “Law Against Discrimination” by making attempts to interfere with an employee’s ability to perform one or more job functions an unlawful employment practice. 

The Assembly Science, Innovation and Technology Committee recently passed another of our bills to make the depiction of sexual exploitation or abuse of children through computer-generated or manipulated sexually explicit images a crime separate from its current placement within the child endangerment law. In addition, we also have sponsored legislation this year to permanently extend pay parity so doctors are reimbursed the same amount for telemedicine and telehealth appointments as in-person office visits. 

In closing, we want to congratulate our Women’s History Month honorees: community development specialist Diane Shelton of Asbury Park; Adanech Asghedom, of Tinton Falls, owner of Ada’s Gojjo restaurant in Asbury Park; Affordable Housing Alliance in Monmouth County CEO Randi Moore, of Red Bank; Sara Weimer, an attorney and the first female Fire Chief in Tinton Falls history; Lisa Laird Dunn, CEO and Global Ambassador for her family’s 246-year-old distillery, Laird & Company, in Colts Neck, and Michele Risley, an educator who answered the call to become an EMT in Tinton Falls at age 50. Special thanks to keynote speaker Margo Chaly, newly appointed New Jersey Secretary of Higher Education.

We want to thank all of the LD11 residents and organizations that supported our Women’s History Month celebration, and have supported our initiatives to provide more affordable accessibility to health care for all. We welcome your ideas, which you may share with us at [email protected], [email protected], or (732) 704-3808.

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