Planned Parenthood Action Fund Endorses Stephanie Schmid For NJ 4

This week, the Planned Parenthood Action Fund endorsed Democrat Stephanie Schmid to represent New Jersey's 4th District in Congress.

The 4th Congressional District covers nearly all of Monmouth County, including towns such as Holmdel, part of Middletown, Colts Neck, Rumson, Manalapan, Freehold, Red Bank, Eatontown and Wall. The district also reaches into Jackson and Lakewood in Ocean County, and Hamilton and Robbinsville in Mercer County.

The fact that Planned Parenthood endorsed Schmid over Republican incumbent Rep. Chris Smith is not surprising: Smith is one of Congress' staunchest abortion opponents, and he has said his strong Catholic faith is the reason he is against it.

Interestingly, both sides frame it as a human rights issue: Schmid, a Yale-educated lawyer and former diplomat, says worldwide access to abortion is a human right, which protects the rights of women. Smith says he is standing up for human rights by ending abortions, and protecting the rights of the unborn.

Smith is a regular speaker at the annual March for Life in Washington, D.C. and every year he votes in support of the Hyde amendment, which prohibits federal taxpayer dollars from being used for abortion. He is also co-chair of the Congressional pro-life caucus.

Schmid, by contrast, worked as the legal counsel for the Center for Reproductive Rights, the job she held most recently before she decided to run for Congress. A former U.S. diplomat to Haiti, she helped write the Reproductive Rights Are Human Rights Act of 2019. This bill would have required the U.S. State Department to track access to abortion, contraception and family planning in countries that receive U.S. aid.

Smith opposed her bill, which has not been signed into law. It is deadlocked in Congress.

Said Schmid in a statement provided by Planned Parenthood:

“I am honored to be the Democratic nominee challenging Rep. Chris Smith, who has spent the past 39 years attacking reproductive rights, including access to birth control and abortion, and denigrating LGBTQ+ rights."

Smith has often spoken against abortion in other countries, for example traveling to Kenya in 2011 to give a speech where he said “we need a world that is free of abortion.” During that visit, he was critical of Kenya's decision to decriminalize abortion in emergency situations, such as to protect the life or health of a pregnant woman.

Smith has represented New Jersey's fourth congressional district since 1981, and is one of the state's only two remaining Republican congressmen; Democrats have been trying to win the seat for years.

One could say ending abortion is one of the issues Smith is most passionate about. Hear the congressman speak at the 2020 March for Life in Washington:

The Smith-vs.-Schmid election will be Nov. 3, the same day as the U.S. presidential election.