On October 6, 2025, the global conversation around abortion rights and access reached a new inflection point, with developments in both New Jersey, United States, and Namibia highlighting the ongoing tensions, legal battles, and human costs at the heart of reproductive health policy. While New Jersey advanced unprecedented measures to inform residents about abortion laws in other states, Namibia’s activists and legal experts renewed calls for reform of a law they say is outdated and dangerous for women.
In New Jersey, lawmakers have taken the bold step of passing a bill that would establish a “Reproductive Health Travel Advisory” for residents seeking abortions outside the state. According to Pregnancy Help News, the bill—having passed the state Senate in October 2024 and the state House on June 30, 2025—awaited Governor Phil Murphy’s signature as of early October. The advisory, if enacted, would require the New Jersey Department of State to issue color-coded warnings about abortion access in other states: blue for normal caution, yellow for increased caution, and red urging residents to reconsider travel due to severe restrictions.
This color-coded system is designed to help New Jersey residents make informed decisions about where they travel while pregnant, in light of the patchwork of abortion laws across the United States. The bill’s text cited a need to inform residents about the extent to which other states limit reproductive health care services, especially as some states have enacted severe restrictions or even bans in the wake of recent federal shifts.
New Jersey is the first state in the U.S. to attempt such a reproductive travel advisory. The move aligns with the state’s broader approach to abortion rights: abortion is legal at all stages of pregnancy, and New Jersey maintains a fund for women who cannot afford the procedure. Notably, the state also permits non-physician healthcare professionals to perform abortions, reflecting its commitment to broad access.
Yet, not everyone is on board with this strategy. Assemblywoman Dawn Fantasia, who has opposed the travel advisory since its introduction, didn’t mince words in her criticism. She argued, as quoted by Pregnancy Help News, that the advisory is "not about health, not about safety, not about rights. It’s about bullying residents in the states that do not implement unlimited abortion access." Fantasia went as far as to compare New Jersey’s approach to that of countries like North Korea and China, known for permitting elective abortion after 20 weeks. She warned that the advisory could backfire and deepen divisions between states.
New Jersey’s aggressive stance on abortion rights doesn’t stop at travel advisories. The state is among 15 so-called "abortion states" that have pledged to warn women about pregnancy centers they label as "fake clinics." These centers, often run by anti-abortion groups, have been the subject of state-issued consumer alerts. Meanwhile, New Jersey Attorney General Matthew Platkin has demanded a pregnancy center turn over a decade’s worth of donor information, including names, phone numbers, addresses, and places of employment. The center, First Choice Pregnancy Center, has fought this demand for nearly two years and has asked the Supreme Court to intervene.
While the U.S. grapples with the aftermath of Roe v. Wade’s overturning and the resulting legal patchwork, a very different but equally fraught abortion debate is unfolding in Namibia. There, human rights activist Rosa Namises has called for an honest, nationwide conversation about abortion, following the arrest of a 22-year-old woman in Walvis Bay for allegedly selling abortion tablets worth N$8,500. As reported by The Namibian, the woman was apprehended after police intercepted a parcel containing 34 suspected abortion tablets at a local service station. She was charged under the Medicines and Related Substances Control Act 13 of 2003 and appeared before the Walvis Bay Magistrate’s Court.
Police in Namibia have warned the public against the sale or purchase of unregulated substances, but activists argue that enforcement alone will not address the deeper issues. Namises, a long-time advocate for women’s rights, lamented that Namibian women have "long been denied the right to make decisions about their reproductive health, a struggle that dates back to before Namibia’s independence." She stated, "Beautiful, strong women have died attempting to abort their babies. If abortion were allowed under proper conditions, we would not be losing so many women."
Namibia’s abortion law, inherited from apartheid-era South Africa, only permits the procedure when a woman’s life is at risk, in cases of rape or incest, or if there is a severe fetal abnormality. Outside these narrow conditions, women face prosecution. Namises criticized the law for failing to account for the complex social realities that drive women to seek abortions—poverty, lack of family support, and emotional trauma among them. She also took aim at what she described as the dominance of religious and male voices in shaping policy: "The men don’t even understand what women are going through and, therefore, have no authority to speak about our bodies. Even when we talk about sanitary pads or menstruation, they interfere, yet they know nothing about it. The same happens when they debate abortion."
Her concerns are not merely theoretical. Namibia has previously faced a surge in baby dumping cases, where desperate women—often young and impoverished—were criminalized instead of supported. Namises reflected, "If abortion had been allowed under proper conditions, we would have saved many of those women from prison and from death." She emphasized that abortion must be viewed as a public health issue, not a moral or religious one: "It is life-threatening when women do backyard abortions. The substances they use are not always safe, it kills them. If we are given the opportunity to access safe services, we can save lives."
Supporting Namises’ call for reform, legal practitioner Norman Tjombe described the recent arrest as symptomatic of a broader problem. "This only demonstrates that Namibia is urgently in need of a more responsible law reform of the abortion law," Tjombe said. He argued for a law that "should allow for freedom of choice to women, which will then permit access to safe and reliable health care. We cannot continue to have this outdated and horribly unconstitutional law remaining, whilst our women and children are killed or maimed due to unsafe abortions."
Namises pointed to international examples, noting that legalizing abortion in other countries has not led to a surge in procedures, but rather improved safety and dignity for women. "In countries where abortion is legal, it’s not that every woman runs to abort, but when the need arises, it’s done safely. Namibia should learn from those examples," she said.
As the debates in New Jersey and Namibia show, the question of abortion access remains deeply contentious, shaped by legal, cultural, and political forces. Yet, for the women at the center of these debates, the stakes are anything but abstract. Whether through travel advisories or calls for law reform, the fight over reproductive rights continues—with lives and futures hanging in the balance.
