Safety in redundancy

When New Yorkers cast their ballots in the 2024 election, they will have an opportunity to strengthen the State Constitution’s current equal protection provisions.

I hope they will see fit to do just that.

If approved, Proposition 1, known as the Equal Rights Amendment, would amend Article 1, Section 11 of the New York Constitution, which currently protects against unequal treatment based on race, color, creed, and religion. The proposal will amend the act to also protect against unequal treatment based on ethnicity, national origin, age, disability, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, pregnancy, and pregnancy outcomes, as well as reproductive healthcare and autonomy. The amendment will also allow laws to prevent or undo past discrimination.

 The League of Women Voters, a proponent of the measure, says Prop 1 will "cement the right to abortion in the State Constitution as well as protect access to reproductive healthcare, including abortion, birth control, and fertility treatments. The measure would also protect older New Yorkers, those who are disabled, and LGBTQ New Yorkers from discrimination in many areas of public life including hiring, housing, education, public accommodations, and healthcare."  

The LWV has explained that the wording, which clarifies that discrimination based on pregnancy or pregnancy outcome is sex discrimination, is crucial given the national trend of criminalizing people for all manner of pregnancy outcomes as well as medical procedures affected by the Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe V. Wade.

The measure would also ensure comprehensive and inclusive equal protections that will guard against attacks on rights from the federal government or federal judges, including threats to the legal equality of LGBTQI+ people.

The New York State Republican Committee, which stands in opposition to the Equal  Rights Amendment largely based on issues surrounding abortion and transgender rights, has argued the measure is too vague, and could potentially codify so-called late-term abortion into law. 

The organization has also raised suspicions that a Constitutional amendment would enable courts to take decisions about their children’s healthcare away from parents.

But while Republicans raise alarm bells about minors going to judges on their own to gain access to sex change operations, they also minimize the risk pregnant New Yorkers face, claiming that since abortion up to viability (about 24-26 weeks) has been legal in the state since 1970 and that the law is unlikely to change the ERA measure isn’t necessary. 

This argument should raise alarms.

Because if this measure merely adds a redundant layer of protection, why are they so adamantly fighting it? 

Perhaps watching 21 states ban abortion or restrict access well before the viability provisions of Roe has made them hopeful that the likelihood of change is within their grasp, especially as states continue to grapple with a landscape wherein seismic shifts in civil rights happen one sunny day in June with another 6-3 decision. 

Or perhaps we’ve noticed that they won’t stop there. They continue to push for an even more dystopian future where women won’t be allowed to travel across state lines for healthcare. 

Since Dobbs, New Yorkers are beginning to wake up to the understanding that without autonomy, women are at serious risk of being treated as community property, not individuals deserving of the ability to make their own decisions.