New Yorkers overwhelmingly approve Equal Rights Amendment

ALBANY – New Yorkers overwhelmingly have approved a constitutional amendment supporters say will protect gender expression and abortion rights.

Election Day results show 62% of people who cast a vote on Proposition 1, also known as the Equal Rights Amendment, supported it while 38% opposed.

New York’s constitution already contained prohibitions on discrimination based on race, creed and religion. The amendment added protections for a person’s ethnicity, age, national origin, disability and sex, which includes pregnancy and pregnancy outcomes, sexual orientation, gender identity and gender expression.

Though it doesn’t expressly use the word “abortion,” it says it protects “reproductive autonomy” and access to reproductive health care such as in vitro fertilization and contraceptives.

Critics of Proposition 1 contended it will provide a right for transgender athletes to play on girls’ sports teams and allow non-citizens to vote, among other claims.

A last-minute, $8 million spending blitz on negative ads appeared to have little impact other than driving down the “yes” vote a few percentage points from where mid-October polls showed it.

“Really, this was about abortion rights and LGBT rights and protecting people against discrimination and I’m very happy it passed,” said Sen. Liz Krueger (D-Manhattan), who shepherded the amendment through the legislative process to place it on the statewide ballot.

The push for it began not long after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, which, for decades, had provided federal abortion rights. The court’s decision, referred to as the Dobbs case, effectively handed the issue to the states.

But the State Legislature, in approving wording for the amendment, went beyond abortion to expand it to include sexual orientation, gender identity and gender expression – which fueled much of the criticism.

While New York already had state laws prohibiting discrimination based on sex and gender issues, supporters argued a constitutional amendment was needed if a Legislature and governor, in the future, wanted to change state statutes.

Krueger said she believed abortion was the primary issue for voters, but not the only one.

“Momentum was very much abortion specific,” Krueger told Newsday. “But there were many others were saying ‘We don’t want someone coming along and reversing laws they we’ve been living under and are happy about.”

The Catholic Church and some religious groups opposed it because of abortion and said the amendment “could infringe on the religious liberty of institutions and individuals, and threatens the right of parents to make medical and other decisions for their children.”

“Despite this outcome, we will continue to fight the good fight for the protection of human rights, the dignity of the human person, the sacredness of all life, the rights of parents, and the preservation of religious liberty,” said Dennis Poust, executive director of the New York State Catholic Conference, in a statement.

Since the Dobbs decision, more than 20 states have enacted some ban or tight restrictions on abortion. A handful of states have gone the other way, proposing – and winning approval in statewide referenda -- to put abortion rights in their state constitutions.

New York, where Democrats hold firm majorities in the state Senate and Assembly, has been considered a strong abortion-rights state. Republicans and other critics say the proposed amendment is unnecessary here and that its inclusion on the ballot is a “cynical political maneuver” to drive up turnout in a presidential election year.

The New York City Bar Association, in a review of the criticisms of the proposal, had said it wouldn’t “change existing law with respect to parental consent, or parents’ ability to be involved in decision-making about healthcare or medical procedures for their minor children, including gender-affirming care.”

Meanwhile, “Title IX,” a federal law that has governed the sports team issue, is being challenged in numerous lawsuits.

By Yancey Roy

yancey.roy@newsday.com@yanceyroy