NEW JERSEY — Insurance plans in New Jersey would fully cover abortion costs under a series of proposals Gov. Phil Murphy introduced Wednesday to bolster access to reproductive health care.

Proposals included the expansion of potential abortion providers, legal protections against states that outlaw abortion and establishing a fund for medical professionals to provide abortions to uninsured or underinsured patients.

“Let me be clear,” Murphy said at a news conference, “New Jersey will not cooperate with any out-of-state investigation into our health care providers that seeks to punish anyone — patient, provider, counselor, friend or Uber driver — for providing abortion care.”

New Jersey codified abortion’s legality in January after the passage of the Freedom of Reproductive Choice Act. Abortion access would continue in New Jersey, even if the Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade. Read more: Abortion Access Would Remain In New Jersey If Roe v. Wade Overturned

Politico obtained an unprecedented leak from the highest court in the land — a draft majority opinion indicating five justices will overturn Roe (1973) and Planned Parenthood v. Casey (1992). But justices can change their votes after draft opinions circulate, and the court’s holding won’t be final until it is published.

If the decision to overturn Roe becomes final, several states would outright ban abortions. With a potential SCOTUS decision to overturn Roe on the horizon, Murphy expressed urgency to bolster access to reproductive care.

“We’ve been in a lot of conversations with legislators, including leadership, and we’ll see where this goes,” Murphy said.

Despite the state’s protections of abortion rights, some advocates said the Freedom of Reproductive Choice Act fell short. The law doesn’t require insurance providers to cover the medical procedure.

Murphy proposed two ways to update the Freedom of Reproductive Choice Act that became law: mandating that insurance plans in New Jersey cover abortions with no out-of-pocket costs and codifying the expansion of potential abortion providers to include advanced practice nurses, midwives and physician assistants.

The governor also proposed that the state establish a Reproductive Health Access Fund. The fund would help expand the number of health care providers with abortion training, provide security grants to at-risk sites and allocate money to facilities that provide reproductive-health services to uninsured and underinsured patients.

Murphy didn’t have details at Wednesday’s news conference of how much the fund might cost. It’s also not immediately clear whether the state would fund the program enough to cut all out-of-pocket costs for patients without insurance or assist out-of-state patients pay for an abortion in the state. Patch reached out to a Murphy spokesperson for more details and will update with any response.

Nonetheless, the Murphy administration believes the Reproductive Health Access Fund would be “the most efficient way to deliver support for folks who are uninsured or underinsured,” he said.

The governor also proposed legal protections against legal actions from other states for those who provide or receive an abortion in New Jersey.

It wasn’t immediately clear whether an expansion of potential abortion providers would cover the procedure at any stage of pregnancy. Under state law, abortions after the 14th week can only occur in a “licensed hospital” or a “licensed ambulatory care facility.” The National Abortion Rights Action League considers the restriction “medically unnecessary.”

While the details on expanding abortion access may be up for debate, New Jerseyans overall support abortion rights. Sixty-three percent of New Jerseyans said they wanted their state legislators to prioritize protecting and expanding access to abortion, according to a March 2021 poll from the National Institute of Reproductive Health. Eighty-seven percent in the poll said decisions about abortion should be made between pregnant people in consultation with their medical providers.