What is Prop 1? Your guide to New York's Equal Rights ballot question (2024)

Oct. 25—New Yorkers have a question on the back of their ballots this year — formally titled "Proposal Number One, An Amendment to Protect Against Unequal Treatment." It's an amendment to the state constitution that would add a handful of new categories to the definition of who is protected from discrimination by law.

It's modeled after the Equal Rights Amendment, a decades-old proposed amendment to the U.S. Constitution that some supporters have defined as the strongest way to defend equal rights for women, LGBTQ+ people, ethnic groups and cement a right to reproductive health care.

It works by adding new traits to the equal protections section of law: ethnicity, national origin, age, disability, or sex including sexual orientation, gender identity and expression, pregnancy, pregnancy outcomes and reproductive health care choice. If passed, those would be added to race, color, creed and religion as civil rights protections from discrimination by a person, company or the law. Now, a company can't deny service to a customer because they are Black or Catholic, for instance. If the amendment passes they also won't be able to deny service to someone because they are gay, transgender, pregnant, had an abortion or are seeking one.

Laws that discriminate the same way, in language or effect, would be unconstitutional.

There are plenty of supporters of the law. New York Democrats at the federal level on the ballot this year are urging their supporters to vote yes on the proposal.

"I will vote yes on Proposition One," U.S. Sen. Kirsten E. Gillibrand, D-N.Y., said during her debate against Republican challenger Mike Sapraicone on Wednesday. "Make sure you turn over the ballot and vote yes on Prop One."

New Yorkers for Equal Rights is the main pro-amendment campaign group. It was formed with support from a variety of statewide advocacy groups including health care worker unions, the NAACP New York Conference, the New York Civil Liberties Union, the League of Women Voters and Planned Parenthood.

Andrew Taverrite, communications director for New Yorkers for Equal Rights, said the proposition will protect abortion access, close loopholes left in the state constitution and expand discrimination protections, while also cementing protections for abortion and reproductive care like in vitro fertilization, IVF.

"I think all of us took it for granted that reproductive freedom would be protected," he said. "When Roe v. Wade fell, we were shocked and we realized our rights were not as safe as we thought they were. Since then, abortion, birth control, IVF has been under attack across the country. The reality is, today New Yorkers do not have a federal or state constitutional right to abortion. Prop One fixes that."

The opposition campaign has ramped up across the state in recent weeks, largely backed by Republicans. After supporting lawsuits that challenged the legality of the amendment appearing on the ballot this year that ultimately failed, the opposition forces have turned to a media blitz asking voters to vote no on the measure.

U.S. Reps Elise M. Stefanik, R-Schuylerville, and Claudia L. Tenney, R-Cleveland, among others, have added "vote no on Prop One," to their campaign pitches as they run for reelection.

"New Yorkers should vote NO on Prop One," Stefanik said in a statement on Tuesday. "This is a desperate attempt by far left Democrats to backdoor more taxpayer funds for illegals, allow illegals to vote and take away parental rights that would allow biological men the right to participate in girls' and women's sports."

A leading voice in the opposition campaign has been the "Coalition to Protect Kids NY," founded with support from Republican groups to oppose the ballot measure. The basis of their argument is that the amendment would be used to cut parents out of children's gender expression decisions at school, would be used to permit children to get sex reassignment surgery without parental permission and would force schools to allow male students into female sports teams and spaces.

But legal experts including the New York City Bar Association have said all those arguments are patently false.

In a fact sheet published by the NYC Bar, which regulates and serves as the trade organization for lawyers in the city, said there's nothing in the amendment that would touch parental rights, sports teams or voting qualifications.

Taverrite, on the pro-amendment campaign, said the language is simple and these misrepresentations from the amendment's opponents are being purposefully misleading.

"Anyone making these claims is trying to deny and distract voters from what the problem is, it's about protecting abortion and preventing government discrimination," he said.

Some Republicans have argued that New York already has strong abortion laws and doesn't need to do anything further to protect the procedure within its borders, including Sapraicone, the retired NYPD detective running against Gillibrand for her Senate seat.

"We have the best ... best is the wrong word, we have an abortion bill here in New York that is better than any, for women, than any other bill in any other state," Sapraicone told the Times after his debate with Gillibrand.

Taverrite said it's not so clear that abortion will remain protected by law in New York, depending on how future elections go.

"In 2022, New York saw a 14-point swing to the right in the governor race," he said. "The anti-abortion candidate, said he wanted to appoint an anti-abortion health commissioner, nearly won the governor's mansion."

Republican Lee M. Zeldin, then a U.S. Rep. from Long Island, lost that race to Democrat and incumbent Gov. Kathleen C. Hochul by 6.4%. Zeldin carried the highest vote percentage of a Republican nominee for New York governor since 2002, and the highest total votes for a Republican gubernatorial nominee since 1970.

"This doesn't hand out special rights or create new rights, it makes sure the rights we have today can't be rolled back," Taverrite said. "We do have good laws in New York, protecting abortion, protecting many of the rights and freedoms we take for granted, but our laws are only as good as who is in the governor's mansion and the state legislature."

What is Prop 1? Your guide to New York's Equal Rights ballot question (2024)
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