When New Yorkers flip over their ballot this election season, they will be asked to vote on Proposition 1, a ballot measure intending to codify in the state constitution abortion rights and add protected classes to the constitution’s equal protection clause. Proposition 1 is also known as the Equal Rights Amendment. Currently, the state constitution protects against discrimination on the basis of race and religion. Proposition 1 would expand the state constitution’s equal protection clause to include ethnicity, national origin, age, disability, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, pregnancy, and pregnancy outcomes, as well as reproductive healthcare and autonomy.Although the word “abortion” does not appear on the ballot or in the amendment itself, supporters say the amendment would protect New Yorkers’ access to abortion care. While most of the protections already exist under New York’s anti-discrimination laws, including them in the state constitution makes them harder to roll back. Repealing a state law only requires majority votes by both chambers of the New York State Legislature. Changing the state constitution requires an amendment to twice pass both chambers of the state Legislature, be reviewed by the New York State Attorney General and then be passed by voters. How we got hereIn 2022, the United States Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, which provided federal protections for abortion care. The ruling made the right to have an abortion a state-level decision.Now, 13 states have banned abortion outright, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation. New York currently has a limit on abortion abortion after 26 weeks of pregnancy. New York state legislators took up trying to codify abortion rights and anti-discrimination legislation in the state Constitution as early as 2019, but the most recent push began in 2022. Legislators passed the Equal Rights Amendment one week after the Supreme Court overturned Roe. They again approved the amendment earlier this year. The ERA was nearly pushed off this year’s ballot because a lawsuit identified a procedural issue. Lawmakers voted on the provision before receiving an opinion from the Attorney General. An appeals court eventually ruled the amendment could go forward, placing it back on the ballot.  Nationally, some states are attempting to amend their state constitutions to safeguard rights not protected by federal laws.What the ERA meansSupporters of the amendment intend to make abortion a right in New York state rather than abortion just being legal. Right now, New York state law allows for an abortion at any point up to 24 to 26 weeks of pregnancy. Supporters say the ERA would codify it as a right.  “Many of us took it for granted that our right to abortion and reproductive freedom would always be protected,” said Andrew Taverrite, the communications director for New Yorkers for Equal Rights, a coalition of over 500 civil and reproductive rights organizations advocating for Prop 1. “We realized our rights are not nearly as safe as we had thought.”In addition to addressing abortion rights, Prop 1 would also add to the list of protected classes in the Equal Protection Clause. While the protected classes in the amendment are protected by state law, they are not yet protected by the state constitution. Prop 1, if it passes, would protect against discrimination on the bases of ethnicity, national origin, age, disability, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, pregnancy, and pregnancy outcomes, as well as reproductive healthcare and autonomy.“It’s incredibly inclusive and expansive,” said Naomi Young, a policy associate with the Equal Rights Amendment Project at Columbia Law School. “It’s the most inclusive Equal Rights Amendment in the country, if voters vote for it. And I think what’s really important is that all New Yorkers could see themselves reflected in that language.”The ERA Project helped write the language of the amendment. The second part of the amendment includes language to make sure protections in the ERA don’t infringe on existing protections. Young also said the language in the law means that legislation proposed to fight discrimination against protected classes won’t be considered discrimination. She believes that this will help allow for additional actions to fight discrimination if the amendment passes and would prevent a ruling similar to one by the Supreme Court that overturned affirmative action in 2023.  The language on the ballot has been controversial. Sponsors of the amendment wanted the ballot’s language to use “abortion” and “LGBT” to clearly reflect the amendment’s intention to voters. The Plain Language Act requires ballot language to explain the proposition at an eighth-grade reading level, the level which most Americans can read.The Board of Elections copied the amendment’s technical language when describing what the amendment would do, which supporters feared would confuse voters, according to a letter sent by state Sen. Liz Krueger to the Board of Elections. New Yorkers for Equal Rights, which has campaigned for the ERA, has received $5.1 million in donations. The organization’s largest donor is the New York Civil Liberties Union, which contributed nearly $1.3 million, state campaign finance data shows. The opposition to the ERAThe law has been opposed by some Republican politicians across the state. New York state Assembly Minority Leader William Barclay, a Republican who represents Oswego County and portions of Cayuga and Jefferson counties, lent his name to the lawsuit that attempted to remove Prop 1 from the ballot. The effort was ultimately unsuccessful. Barclay believes the legislation could lead to an increase in transgender girls competing against cis girls in sports. He called that “unfair.” His concerns are similar to that of politicians and campaigns across the state that are against Prop 1. Those campaigns have focused on trans athletes and what they’ve called “parents’ rights.”Although Barclay acknowledged trangender girls competing on sports teams is not widespread, Barclay is concerned the amendment would prevent future legislators’ ability to ban transgender girls from competing in girls sports.Barclay also said the legislation is broad and unspecific, citing the fact that the word “abortion” was not included in the legislation. The Coalition to Protect Kids New York, a committee fundraising to defeat Prop 1, has nicknamed the ERA the “parent replacement act.” Sash Silvera, a spokesperson for the group, said she is concerned Prop 1 would allow transgender children to receive gender-affirming surgeries without parental consent. Young, the policy associate at Columbia, said the use of “parents’ rights” is meant to invoke backlash in response to equality movements, citing its use in response to desegregation.Minors are differently positioned to constitutional rights and the amendment would not change parents’ fundamental rights, said Kathrine Bodde, a lawyer with the New York Civil Liberties Union. The concerns publicized by opponents over the amendment are “thinly-veiled anti abortion tactics” and “fear-mongering” to divide and confuse voters, said Bodde. The Coalition to Protect Kids New York has received $547,660.77 in contributions so far, but $400,000 of that total comes from one woman, according to state campaign finance data: Carol N. Crossed, of Rochester. Crossed once bought Susan B. Anthony’s childhood home in Massachusetts and preserved it as a museum, according to a report from RochesterFirst.com. She is also the vice president of Feminists Choosing Life New York.The conservative outcry about Prop 1 mimics tactics used elsewhere in the country, according to Syracuse University professor Erin Rand. Rand teaches rhetorical and queer studies and is writing a book on the weaponization of trans identity in politics. The right has framed trans youth as a problem by creating moral panic by imagining a “hypothetical situation” in which more than a handful of transgender athletes compete in sports, Rand said. The realm of sports makes discussions around children’s bodies more palatable, she said. “It’s about one group of people deciding that they know what’s best for a different group of people and claiming to protect them while removing all of their agency and all of their legal rights,” Rand said.The post What is Prop 1? New York’s Equal Rights Amendment is on the ballot this year appeared first on Central Current.