Gottheimer fights back against far-right extremist attacks on women and reproductive health care

NEW JERSEY— U.S. Congressman Josh Gottheimer (NJ-5) Friday joined local leaders and women’s rights advocates to honor Women’s History Month and announce new action to protect women’s rights and reproductive health care against far-right extremist attacks.

Gottheimer is fighting back against the Trump Administration’s decision to jeopardize critical funding for the Violence Against Women Act, which supports survivors of domestic violence and helps prevent violence and abuse. These are part of broader efforts to roll back women’s rights, including assaults on reproductive freedom and cutting investments in breast cancer and ovarian cancer research.

Attack on Women:

• In January, the Trump Administration’s Department of Justice announced that it would no longer enforce the FACE Act, bipartisan legislation that protects women seeking reproductive health care.
  • The Administration has even pardoned nearly two dozen lawless thugs who violated the FACE Act by breaking in and blocking access to reproductive health clinics.
  • In the last fifty years, reproductive health clinics across the country have seen more than 40 bomb threats, 200 incidents of arson, and 300 burglaries, according to the National Abortion Federation.
• The Trump Administration has eliminated grant opportunities through the Office on Violence Against Women for law enforcement and community-focused organizations to support survivors and prevent violence and abuse.
  • For decades, the Office on Violence Against Women, created by the bipartisan Violence Against Women Act (VAWA), has administered grants that enhance legal protections for survivors, improve access to critical services, and strengthen law enforcement’s ability to prevent and address domestic violence, sexual assault, dating violence, and stalking.
• Last month, President Trump signed an executive order that pulled all federal grants that contain the word “woman,” jeopardizing critical support for medical research that would improve women’s health outcomes.
• Earlier this month, far-right extremists in Congress jammed through a reckless government funding bill that gutted investments in Community Project Funding (CPF).
  • Organizations like the Women’s Rights Information Center in Englewood, NJ, will lose funding for its mental health and well-being support services that support low-income, underserved victims of crime in Bergen County.
• In the United States, in 2025, women still earn just 83 cents for every dollar paid to men.

Gottheimer’s Efforts to Fight Back Against Attacks:

• First, Gottheimer is urging New Jersey Attorney General Matt Platkin to use every tool at his disposal to enforce the FACE Act and hold anyone who threatens patients or providers at reproductive health care clinics accountable.
• Second, Gottheimer is sending a letter to U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi demanding that she uphold the promises she made in her testimony before Congress to protect VAWA funding so these life-saving investments remain available to states and communities.
• Third, Gottheimer helped introduce the bipartisan Safe Vehicle Access for Survivors Act to prevent abusers from using car location technology to track, intimidate, or control survivors.
  • This legislation establishes a process for survivors of domestic violence to request the termination or disabling of connected vehicle services, which includes information like location that could be misused by an abuser.
• Gottheimer has long fought to protect reproductive freedom and advance women’s health care initiatives:
  • This month, Gottheimer also signed an Amicus brief to the Supreme Court, making it clear that Congress established the right of Medicaid beneficiaries to receive comprehensive, essential health care from any provider of their choice.
  • Gottheimer helped introduce the Right to Contraception Act to codify into law the right to access and use contraception without government interference.
  • Gottheimer introduced the SEARCH Act to support research into rare diseases that disproportionately impact women.
  • Gottheimer introduced the Freedom to Decide Act and the Protecting Personal, Private Medical Decisions Act to protect doctor-prescribed access to mifepristone and support telemedicine across state lines.
  • Gottheimer joined Congresswoman Lauren Underwood (IL-14) to help introduce the bipartisan, bicameral Black Maternal Health Momnibus Act, or Momnibus — a collection of legislation focused on addressing the social determinants of health, strengthening the maternal health support system and collecting better data surrounding the maternal health crisis.
  • Gottheimer helped lead the bicameral Access to Family Building Act to establish the right for women to access reproductive medical care, including IVF.

“We are witnessing in real time a full-scale assault by far-right extremists on women’s safety, rights, and health care. The President said he would ‘protect women whether they like it or not,’ yet he is refusing to enforce laws that protect them and handing out get-out-of-jail-free cards to those who threaten them. It’s completely disgusting. Here in Jersey, we will stand up and stand together against these far-right extremist attacks that are putting women’s lives at risk,” said Gottheimer, a member of the Pro-Choice Caucus. “All you need to do is open your history books and read about what life was like for women in our country before Roe, the countless lives lost every single year, and you’ll understand why this situation is so dangerous. We can’t go back. If we don’t stand up now and make our voices heard, far-right extremists will continue to advance their agenda. We won’t allow extremism to win.”