Anti-Abortion Protester Responds to a Question About Rape: ‘We’re Being Bullied!’

On Monday, a committee of New Jersey assemblypersons advanced five bills to further protect abortion access in the Garden State—so naturally, a gaggle of anti-abortion fanatics besieged the debate and yelled things about abortion rights making human trafficking worse. At one point, one accused a lawmaker of bullying him because they asked if it’s fair to force a woman to carry her rapist’s baby. 

This particular flashpoint began during a debate over S1290, which would protect abortion-seekers from getting their license plates surveilled. (In May, a Texas policeman used a third-party license plate reader company to track down a woman who got an abortion.) The bill passed along party lines, but not before Rev. Gregory Quinlan—an “ex-gay” activist who once called the state’s former governor “murderous Murphy” for his pro-abortion stance—threw a tantrum. 

“This is a human trafficker’s dream!” Quinlan said. “You vote for this, you vote for the sexual exploitation of women and children!” 

“You keep dropping this word-bomb, ‘trafficking,’” Assemblyman Joe Danielsen (D-Somerset) replied. “Is it fair to force a raped woman that produces a pregnancy to have a child?” 

“We’re being bullied here! We’re being bullied!” Quinlan yelled. To which Danielsen shot back, “No, you’re being [held] accountable.”

Speaking to reporters outside of the State House afterwards, Assemblywoman Mitchelle Drulis (D-Somerset) said the accusations upset her. “It really bothers me that they are conflating these two issues, because we are doing everything we can to protect women in all cases, period,” she said.

The Assembly Community Development and Women’s Affairs Committee, who typically reviews legislation concerning women’s issues, considered four other bills on Monday—all passed: A1970 authorizes Gov. Mikie Sherrill (D) to enter a “compact” or coalition with other states to protect abortion access; A4074 enshrines a travel advisory for pregnant people traveling; A2731 explicitly gives women the right to reproductive technology such as IVF; and A1679 prohibits crisis-pregnancy centers from falsely advertising their services to pregnant women. 

“Everyone should be able to access high-quality, affordable reproductive health care services, without fear of criminalization or safety concerns,” Kaitlyn Wojtowicz, the Executive Director of the Planned Parenthood Action Fund of New Jersey, said of the two-hour hearing. “The bills passed out of the Assembly Community Development and Women’s Affairs Committee today each address different aspects of this vision for our state’s future.”

Currently, 13 states have a total or near-total abortion ban. New Jersey is one of nine states and Washington, D.C., with zero bans. According to a study conducted by Rutgers University and New Jersey Family Planning League, about 3,000 women who lived in abortion-banned states traveled to New Jersey for abortion care in 2024. Another anti-abortion activist, the head of New Jersey Right to Life, brought up this statistic during the debate, but when Danielsen asked how many of the 3,000 were “trafficked women,” they replied, “We don’t know.”

I’d say that’s the least of the things they don’t know. 

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