With NJ Abortion Access At Risk, Representative Sherrill Announces New Bill to Restrict Judge Shopping

Montclair, NJ— Congresswoman Mikie Sherrill (NJ-11) gathered leaders from Planned Parenthood, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), and Agile Therapeutics for a panel discussion on the threat to abortion access in New Jersey as a result of the Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine v. U.S. Food and Drug Administration decision. At the event, the Congresswoman announced legislation to prevent results-oriented single-judge divisions from pushing extreme agendas with nationwide repercussions.

Watch a recording of the panel here. 

“This decision is another step in the far-right’s agenda to attack women’s rights, threaten our lives, and diminish our economic future. That’s why today, I am announcing new legislation that I will be introducing in the coming days to prevent something referred to as ‘judge shopping.’ Increasingly, conservative activists file lawsuits in single-judge divisions where they are all but assured to get a favorable ruling. That was the playbook anti-choice advocates followed by filing this case in the Amarillo division of the Northern District of Texas,” said Rep. Sherrill. “I want to thank all of the experts who joined me today to lay out how unprecedented and dangerous this decision is medically, legally, and scientifically.” 

Jeanne LoCicero, the Legal Director of the ACLU NJ, laid out the legal chaos the Texas decision started and its impact on women’s civil rights nationwide. 

“Overnight, the Fifth Circuit considered the Department of Justice’s request to put on hold the trial court’s decision. What the appeals court did was it pared back the district court’s ruling, but really endorsed a lot of the thinking in the district judge’s decision. Within the last hour or so, we’ve heard that the Attorney General is planning to make an emergency request to the Supreme Court to put a hold on the decision and the implementation of it,” saidJeanne LoCicero. “What we do know is that if the current rulings stay in place, mifepristone is going to be severely restricted.“

Dr. Elizabeth Talmont, Chief Project Officer at Planned Parenthood of Northern, Central and Southern NJ explained how the Texas decision will harm her patients here in New Jersey. 

“Mifepristone has been safely and effectively used by five million people in this country since its FDA approval in 2000. There is overwhelming evidence that this is safe and effective for anybody who wants it, with over a 99% safety profile,” said Dr. Talmont. “What is happening in the courts has nothing to do with safety nor the efficacy of medication.”

President and CEO of Planned Parenthood Metropolitan New Jersey Roslyn Rogers Collins explained why this attack on medication abortion is uniquely dangerous to women’s health and freedoms. 

“In the months since the Dobbs decision, I’ve often been asked about what keeps me up at night. My resounding response has been ‘what’s next?’ Even in states like New Jersey where abortion remains safe, legal, and available without restrictions, it is clear that there is an agenda to dismantle all access around the country,” explained Roslyn Rogers Collins.

Joseph Chiodo III, Pharm D., who is Vice President of Medical Affairs at Agile Therapeutics spoke about the rigorous process a drug must go through to get FDA approval and how this unprecedented court case could hinder future research and development at smaller pharmaceutical companies.

“Experts warned us that this case could upend decades of precedent. Unfortunately, this is setting the stage for a single individual that is second guessing scientific decisions made by a rigorous team at the FDA,” said Joseph Chiodo. “This is not what we want as a society, where we have political motives and judges making clinical and scientific decisions. This is a dangerous precedent that could impact innovation and investment.”

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