Conflict in the Lame Duck Session

While many of us were celebrating the holiday season as 2025 came to a close, the Democratic majority in Trenton was pushing bills through committee and onto the floor with alarming speed. Several of these proposals may have appeared narrow in intent, yet they carried serious and deeply flawed unintended consequences. 

Want a glimpse of what I mean?  

• The legislature passed a bill stating that if a 16‑year‑old calls the suicide hotline and a mental health professional determines the teen is at “high risk of suicide,” the parent will not be notified of their child’s mental‑health crisis. This raises serious concerns. What if there are weapons or medications in the home that the teen could access to harm themselves or others, and the parent has no idea their child is in danger? 

• Another bill advanced through the Assembly would restrict law enforcement from cooperating with out‑of‑state agencies to help identify potential human traffickers who transport young girls across state lines for forced abortions. A former victim of sex trafficking—and even a former trafficker herself—testified and pleaded with the committee not to pass the bill. Yet the Assembly moved forward, prioritizing their obsession with abortion over efforts to combat human trafficking.

• After making it more difficult for police investigating traffickers, the Assembly attempted to push through a bill that would place every homeschool family under state scrutiny. The proposal would require parents each year to bring their child to a public‑school employee to be examined and questioned about their family. This is nothing less than an intrusive mandate that treats every homeschool household as suspect. Thankfully, it was pulled from the Assembly Health Committee agenda because of widespread parental objection!

As you can see, the stakes in Trenton have never been higher. In just a few short weeks, lawmakers advanced bills that hide life‑threatening mental‑health crises from parents, restrict law enforcement from identifying human traffickers transporting girls for forced abortions, and even attempted to place every homeschool family under state investigation. These are not abstract policy debate but are decisions that directly affect the safety of children, the rights of parents, and the protection of vulnerable women. 

Your support is what allows us to stand in the gap, testify against dangerous legislation, mobilize partners across the state, and defend families when it matters most. If you believe New Jersey’s children and parents deserve better, I’m asking you to make a generous gift today to strengthen this work for the battles ahead.