Dear Friends,

The NJ State Senate will vote Thursday on a bill that would force schools to teach sexual orientation and gender identity beginning in kindergarten. Please help stop this by contacting your state senator today!

The original draft of the bill required this teaching only in high school health class. It was recently amended to include kindergarten and elementary grades and to place these human sexuality lessons throughout many areas of the curriculum.

Diversity and tolerance should teach people to be respectful of different beliefs and backgrounds based upon their unique experiences and cultures. However, in public schools it is the very opposite. Instead, trainings covered under these types of categories have been used as compulsion to force students to affirm and adopt the sexual beliefs of the state government – against their own religious beliefs. Tragically, students who do not “rethink” and “revise” their religious beliefs are often excluded and disliked by peers and embarrassed by their teachers.

Schools should ensure students know what kind of conduct is unacceptable, like actions that constitute bullying and harassment. Yet, this does not mean the government has a right to impose a sexual framework onto students.

Note: This is different than the LGBT contributions curriculum passed two years ago.

Use our Action Center to contact your state senator and other key legislators, urging them to vote NO on S2781 and A4454 when the bills are voted on by the full Senate on Thursday, Dec. 17.  

Please share the link with others. Thank you for spreading the word!

Sincerely,

Shawn Hyland
Director of Advocacy

Last week I asked the elected officials on the Assembly Appropriations Committee, “Why is the richest abortion provider in the world receiving a raise when 172 school districts in NJ are receiving massive cuts from their state aid? Why is it that we never have enough money to educate our children, but we always have enough money to end the lives of our children?”

Family Policy Alliance of New Jersey®, New Jersey Right to Life, and other prolife activists testified before the Assembly Appropriations Committee regarding their intention to reward Planned Parenthood, the wealthiest abortion provider in the world, with a near 100% raise in NJ taxpayer funding through Assembly bill NJ 5802. Currently, Planned Parenthood receives $10.5 million each year from your tax dollars under the misleading classification of “Family Planning Services”. AB 5802 will line Planned Parenthood’s pockets with an additional $9.5 million to make up for the federal funds they voluntarily forfeited by removing themselves from the federal Title X program.

According to Congress, abortion is not and can never be a part of true family planning.  Family planning services “should help men, women, and adolescents make healthy and fully informed decisions about starting a family and determine the number and spacing of children.”  Recent federal rules and regulations have been passed to guarantee Title X funds do not run afoul of Congress’ intent to “favor childbirths over abortions” in its administration of Title X Funds. As NJ A5802 states, Planned Parenthood lost federal funds because their core mission violates Title X law—Abortion on demand is not family planning.

Unfortunately, the money allocated to Planned Parenthood in the NJ state budget will now surge to $20 million per year to fund the destruction of human life in cities like Camden, East Orange, Elizabeth, Newark, Paterson and Trenton.

Sadly, the additional 9.5 million dollars of state money will not increase women’s health options, but the Title X federal funds will. There are 116 Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHC) in NJ that offer a full range of women’s healthcare, which does not include abortion. The money that Planned Parenthood forfeited under Title X is now free to flow to these true comprehensive health care centers. This means there is greater access to these FQHC’s in NJ’s underserved urban areas than there are to Planned Parenthood clinics.

Tragically, AB 5802 passed through the Appropriations Committee and is now awaiting a floor vote in the Assembly.

Together, we must demand our state legislature respect the life of preborn children in Camden, East Orange, Elizabeth, Newark, Paterson, Trenton, and other urban centers.

On behalf of the innocent,

Shawn Hyland
Advocacy Director
Family Policy Alliance of New Jersey


Len Deo
Director of Alliances – Northeast Region, Family Policy Alliance
Founder and Past President, New Jersey Family Policy Council

The detrimental effect marijuana will have in the Garden State is undeniable. The question then becomes – what is the benefit of legalized weed? The black market does not diminish –illegal grow operations have increased in states that have legalized. The criminal justice system is not reformed – in contrast, marijuana arrests for young African American and Hispanic youth have increased in Colorado since legalization.

Do not allow self-interested drug advocates to pretend pot is safe for consumption either. The 2% THC levels of the Baby Boomer coming of age era, has been replaced with edibles containing ten times the legal limit for THC in Colorado. Potency rates of up to 95% have been recorded. This higher content of THC can increase anxiety, depression, and drastically diminish the mental health of the user.

On August 29, 2019, the U.S. Surgeon General, Jerome Adams, released a timely public awareness advisory message on the dangers of marijuana – particularly for youth. “The marijuana of today is fundamentally different than in decades past or even just a few years ago. It’s significantly more potent and it can be further concentrated for use. A combination that can harm the developing brain.”

David Evans Esq.- New Jersey Drug Free Schools Coalition

“We are alarmed about the growing normalization of marijuana in schools, in workplaces and in homes. This will have no positive outcomes. As the US Surgeon General recently stated:

‘Recent increases in access to marijuana and in its potency, along with misperceptions of safety of marijuana endanger our most precious resource, our nation’s youth.'”

As we’ve seen, recreational marijuana doesn’t fix problems it only makes them worse. Family Policy Alliance of New Jersey,® alongside our coalition of partners standing against marijuana legalization, is fighting for our communities of color, low-income neighborhoods, and the overall public health and safety of New Jersey citizens.

We stand for policies and ballot measures that will strengthen families, uplift society, and provide safer workplaces. We will not allow lawmakers to devastate the Garden State!

We strongly encourage the NJ State Senate and Assembly to serve the people of their districts and not the pockets of their donors. Vote no on recreational marijuana!

Thank you for taking action to protect our youth and most vulnerable citizens!


Shawn Hyland
Advocacy Director
Family Policy Alliance of New Jersey


Len Deo
Director of Alliances – Northeast Region, Family Policy Alliance
Founder and Past President, New Jersey Family Policy Council

Pro-life, pro-family social conservatives won in New Jersey this week because of your support. Family Policy Alliance of New Jersey® identified two key districts to engage thousands of Christian voters in this year’s state races. We won in both districts!

If you believe in the dignity of human life, the rights of parents to raise their children according to their beliefs, and the beauty of the traditional family, then this week’s election was a great moment of advocacy and victory!

District 1 – encompassing Cape May County and parts of Atlantic and Cumberland Counties – had a special State Senate race to fill the seat that Jeff Van Drew left behind when he was elected to the House of Representatives last year. Incumbent Senator Bob Andrzejcak and Assemblymen Bruce Land and Matthew Milam were pro-choice, fiscally moderate Democrats who were unwilling to stand up against their party leadership on vital social issues. They were challenged by a pro-life team that strongly opposes recreational marijuana and supports parental rights in education: Mike Testa for Senate and Erick Simonsen and Antwan McClellan for State Assembly. Family Policy Alliance of New Jersey was able to educate and mobilize thousands of family voters in this district last week because of your financial support. Testa, Simonsen and McClellan won by about 3,000 votes!

District 39 – encompassing parts of Bergan and Passaic County – had a hotly contested race where our good friend and pro-life champion, Assemblyman Bob Auth, was attacked weekly in the media by his challengers for his unashamed socially conservative views. In response, we contacted thousands of family-focused values voters in this district last week, giving Assemblyman Bob Auth a re-election win by just 1,900 votes!

The results of voting have started the trajectory towards a state where God is honored, religious freedom flourishes, families thrive and life is cherished.

Sincerely,

Shawn Hyland
Director of Advocacy

 


Len Deo
Director of Alliances Northeast Region, Family Policy Alliance
Founder & Past President, New Jersey Family Policy Council

“If we don’t have a proper fundamental moral background, we will finally end up with a totalitarian government, which does not believe in rights for anyone except the state.”
President Harry Truman
Attorney General’s Conference, 1950

This Tuesday, Nov 5, the contentious LGBT curriculum, the legalization of recreational marijuana, the assault against parental rights, the safety and dignity of preborn life, and the violation of religious liberty will be at stake. This off-year election will either prevent or hasten the moral collapse of our state. The New Jersey Assembly, serving two-year terms, is up for grabs once again.

In the current legislative session, our state Assembly:

The candidates who win on Nov 5 will commence a new two-year legislative session in January 2020. These elected officials will make decisions that have extraordinary consequences on families and people of faith. The results of voting will start the trajectory towards a state where God is honored, religious freedom flourishes, families thrive and life is cherished; or the dreaded opposite – the unhindered promulgation of anti-family values in education, the reckless and destructive impact of neighborhoods saturated with pot-shops, and the calloused insistence to violate human rights by allowing late term abortions in NJ that are banned in 96% of nations.

If you believe in the dignity of human life, the rights of parents to raise their children according to their beliefs, and the beauty of the traditional family, then November 5th is your greatest moment of advocacy. Historically, voter turnout is low in years when neither the President nor Governor is on the ballot. Therefore, your vote carries significant weight!

Do not approach elections with despair or hopelessness despite your district. Even if your preferred candidate does not win, a closer than expected outcome sends a clear message to incumbent leftist politicians.  I urge you not to allow radical ideologies to set the agenda in Trenton in 2020. Turn out and vote on November 5 for pro-life, pro-family candidates.


Shawn Hyland
Director of Advocacy
Family Policy Alliance of new Jersey


Len Deo
Director of Alliances Northeast Region, Family Policy Alliance
Founder & Past President, New Jersey Family Policy Council