As a former regional director at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and a practicing emergency medicine physician in New York City, I have spent much of my summer talking to folks here and throughout the United States about the opportunity we have to begin restoring the right to abortion at the national level with our votes on Nov. 5. In these conversations, I’ve often found myself needing to remind people that New Yorkers have the opportunity to stand up for and safeguard reproductive health care access in our state on that same day. Proposal 1, on the ballot statewide this November, would enshrine reproductive rights, including the right to abortion, in the New York State Constitution. It is imperative that New Yorkers understand why it is so important that we vote to ensure these rights now. New Yorkers tend to assume that abortion and other reproductive health care will always be accessible in this state and that we are insulated from the battles playing out elsewhere. But the last few years have demonstrated that when it comes to reproductive rights, it’s a mistake to take anything for granted. Most Americans were shocked to see the federal right to abortion stripped away when the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in its 2022 Dobbs decision. The consequences have been devastating: abortion is currently banned or severely restricted in 22 states, and birth control and IVF access are being threatened at the state and federal levels. abortionShawn Inglima/for New York Daily NewsStudents participate in a pro-choice rally in Union Square on Thursday, May 19, 2022. (Shawn Inglima for New York Daily News) New York is seen as a safe haven for reproductive health care. But as long as reproductive rights are not guaranteed in our Constitution, they are vulnerable to anti-choice lawmakers and activists. In New York, reproductive health care protections could be repealed or limited with a change in the makeup of the Legislature or who is governor. And the anti-choice movement that has succeeded in revoking reproductive health care access elsewhere in the country will do anything they can to weaken the rights we have in this state. Many would be surprised to learn that the state law that protects abortion and other reproductive health care access in New York was only passed five years ago, despite similar legislation first being introduced in 2007. Why wasn’t this law enacted sooner? Because it was blocked by the anti-choice lawmakers who, until 2018, controlled the state Senate. In 2022, just months after Roe was overturned, Lee Zeldin, a candidate with a long record voting against abortion access — and who had said it would be a “great idea” to appoint an anti-choice state health commissioner — came within six points of becoming governor. And in the last decade alone, lawmakers have introduced 53 anti-abortion and anti-reproductive rights bills in our Legislature. There’s too much at stake to not pass Prop 1. Prop 1 would explicitly embed abortion and reproductive rights into the state Constitution, preventing any government action that would curtail access to abortion and other reproductive health care. In other words, it would stop any attempt to undermine reproductive rights, including abortion, in its tracks — regardless of which politicians are in charge in the future. We should take seriously the hard lessons learned in other states. As voters across the country know, political winds can shift quickly. Constitutional protections are an essential bulwark in a post-Roe world. In Florida, a state that voted for pro-choice presidential candidates in 2008 and 2012 — and where a majority of voters support reproductive rights — anti-choice legislators enacted a six-week abortion ban, effectively eliminating abortion access there. Now, in an effort to repeal that ban, Floridians are trying to pass a ballot measure that would protect abortion rights in their own state constitution. This echoes what happened in Ohio, whose residents, in the wake of Dobbs, also found themselves subject to a six-week abortion ban passed in their state legislature. In 2023, Ohioans voted in favor of adding abortion rights to the Ohio constitution — rendering the ban unenforceable, even in the face of challenges from anti-choice lawmakers. New Yorkers overwhelmingly support reproductive rights, but we clearly can’t rely solely on elected officials to protect them. We can’t be complacent and we can’t risk being caught off guard, as so many were when Roe was overturned. Prop 1 gives voters the power to proactively cement reproductive rights in New York’s Constitution, rather than leave them up for grabs by politicians. Our rights are more fragile than many believe — and it is critical that New Yorkers act this November to preserve them by voting YES on Prop 1. Kass served as the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services regional director covering New York, New Jersey and Puerto Rico from 2021 until 2024.