Anti Trans Republicans Are Trying to Sink NYS Proposed Equal Rights Amendment

NY Voters will be voting on the ER law in the November elections

 

BY SAMANTHA RIEDEL

"THEM"

New Yorkers will vote on a referendum for the state Equal Rights Amendment this November, a constitutional amendment that would theoretically protect abortion rights but doesn’t use the word “abortion” — and which far-right agitators are using to whip up more transgender panic.

The amendment in question has endured a rocky journey through the U.S. legal system since it was first introduced in 2022. Hot on the heels of the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v Wade, New York Democrats quickly pushed the bill through the legislature and secured a spot as Proposal 1 on the 2024 ballot. But in May, a Livingston County judge ordered it stricken from the ballot due to a procedural error: Democrats had failed to obtain a written evaluation of the amendment’s text from Attorney General Letitia James ahead of the legislature’s final vote, as required by state law. Two months later, an appeals court overturned that decision and restored the ballot measure on separate procedural grounds, finding that Republicans had missed their window to file suit under the statute of limitations.

With the election just two months away, the amendment’s supporters and detractors are now battling instead over its intentionally broad wording. If passed, the amendment would add the terms “sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, pregnancy, pregnancy outcomes, and reproductive healthcare and autonomy” to the state constitution’s antidiscrimination statutes — generally enhancing legal protections for LGBTQ+ New Yorkers and people seeking abortion-related care in one package.

Supporters say that making discrimination based on “pregnancy” or “reproductive autonomy” illegal would further protect the right to an abortion in New York. Any attempt to restrict abortion care could be considered medical discrimination because it would create unequal access to medical care. The amendment “would ensure the State could not pass a state abortion ban, stop state funding for abortion via Medicaid, ban private insurance coverage of abortion, prosecute or criminalize miscarriage, or add medically unnecessary burdens on patients or facilities,” advocates with New Yorkers for Equal Rights (NYER) say in their primer on Prop 1. 

The New York Civil Liberties Union has also endorsed the amendment, saying it will close “dangerous loopholes” in the state constitution and protect New Yorkers from “the whims of politicians.”

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Nassau County chief executive Bruce Blakeman has pushed for the prohibition since February.

But the word “abortion” itself does not appear in the amendment, nor does it appear in its official Board of Elections summary, which voters will find on their ballots. The Board’s decision to use only language directly from the bill has caused frustration from some Democrats and advocates like NYER campaign director Sasha Ahuja, who told the Associated Press last month that the amendment’s implications for abortion rights “should be clearly reflected and spelled out in the ballot language.” Last week, a judge ruled against forcing the state to include “abortion” in that language. 

Meanwhile, state Republicans have busily cast the amendment instead as a shady campaign to push trans athletes into women’s sports — the GOP’s favorite wedge issue for the past several years running, and one that’s turned into a pitched battle in Nassau County especially since February. A local chapter of the anti-LGBTQ+ group Moms for Liberty held a rally against the amendment near New York City Hall this week, Gothamist reported, as speakers accused Democrats of being “deceptive” about the amendment and claimed it would “force [...] any single-sex space meant for women to include men” — a likely reference to transgender women.

In comments to Gothamist, Ahuja flatly denied conservatives’ claims, while also acknowledging the amendment’s broad language is “hiding the ball a little bit” with regards to its policy effects on abortion.

“That narrative is one that’s being pushed by extremists who are using a small handful of innocent kids as political pawns,” Ahuja said, referring to right-wing attacks on trans youth and student-athletes. “They’re trying to divide and distract New Yorkers from what this amendment is actually about. It’s about guaranteeing our personal freedoms and protecting the right to abortion.