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New Jersey AG Matthew Platkin visits Cherry Hill abortion clinic as providers prepare for possibility of more Trump restrictions

The Women's Center has seen an increase in out-of-state patients and those who use language interpreter services.

New Jersey Attorney General Matthew Platkin (left) visits the Women's Center in Cherry Hill on Monday. With him are the center’s director of community engagement Roxanne Sutocky (center) and Lisa Perriera (right) a physician and chief medical director for the center.
New Jersey Attorney General Matthew Platkin (left) visits the Women's Center in Cherry Hill on Monday. With him are the center’s director of community engagement Roxanne Sutocky (center) and Lisa Perriera (right) a physician and chief medical director for the center.Read moreTom Gralish / Staff Photographer

In a visit to a Cherry Hill abortion clinic Monday, New Jersey’s attorney general asked providers to share their concerns about how access to their care could change under President Donald Trump’s new administration.

Democrat Matthew Platkin met with providers at The Women’s Center in anticipation of a push for greater abortion restrictions from Republicans now in control of the White House and Congress. Many Republicans support a federal ban on abortion. Trump has said he believes abortion rights should be left to states, but has stopped short of saying that he would veto a federal ban if Congress passed one.

New Jersey passed a law protecting the right to abortion at any stage of pregnancy in 2022, after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the Constitution does not guarantee the right to abortion, and that states should decide whether and when abortion is legal.

Abortion also remains legal in Pennsylvania. But at least 12 states have total abortion bans, with some taking steps to criminalize patients and abortion doctors.

Providers at The Women’s Center in Cherry Hill said they worry about patients who travel from states where abortion is illegal; and about whether they, as doctors, could be arrested if they traveled to a state that prosecutes abortion providers.

People may be less likely to seek care if they fear being arrested. And doctors may delay care, potentially risking patients’ health, if they are worried about being sued for providing an abortion, said Lisa Perriera, an obstetrician-gynecologist and medical director of The Women’s Center.

“I think the biggest concern in all of this is misinformation and stigma, and the chilling effect that has,” Perriera said.

Providers are also concerned about Trump’s deportation plans for undocumented immigrants, she said.

Health-care facilities, including abortion clinics, were previously off-limits to immigration authorities, along with schools and churches, but Trump revoked that protection.

In an exclusive interview with The Inquirer, Platkin said he is committed to protecting abortion rights for patients and health-care providers in New Jersey. The state is among those suing Trump to block his attempt to end automatic citizenship for American-born children of undocumented immigrants.

“Anybody who’s going to come and threaten somebody taking advantage of what’s lawful in the state of New Jersey, or the people that are providing lawful services in New Jersey is going to have to come through me,” he said. “And we’re going to stand up and protect that access here.”

Abortion in New Jersey

The Women’s Center has abortion clinics in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Connecticut and Georgia.

Its Cherry Hill clinics saw a total of 6,000 patients last year. About a quarter of patients are from out-of-state, including Pennsylvania, where restrictions such as a 24-hour wait limit access for some. Others come from states like Texas, where abortion is effectively banned.

Perriera said she did not know what portion of the clinic’s patients are immigrants because the facility does not ask for that information. But in the last quarter, about a third of patients used translation services, meaning they needed help communicating with clinic staff in a language other than English or Spanish.

The clinic has also seen an increase in patients asking about walk-in appointments, which the clinic typically does not do, said Roxanne Sutocky, director of community engagement for The Women’s Center. She thinks people are worried about giving their information to schedule an appointment, for fear it could be linked to their immigration status, she said.

The clinic has been preparing a plan for how it would respond if there was an immigration raid at the facility, Sutocky said, but she declined to offer specifics.