In June, the New York Court of Appeals unanimously ruled to keep the Equal Rights Amendment on the November ballot after the state Supreme Court struck it down in May. If voters pass the ERA, it would be added to the state constitution, providing broad protections against discrimination based on race, national origin, age, disability, and sex (including sexual orientation, gender identity, and gender expression), and especially protections for pregnancy outcomes and reproductive autonomy.
According to the NYCLU, codifying the ERA into New York's Bill of Rights would be the first time the state constitution explicitly states that sex discrimination includes discrimination based on pregnancy or the outcome of pregnancy.
New York State Senator Elizabeth Kruger, who co-sponsored the 2022 bill, has spent the past five years trying to get the ERA to voters. She said: Rewire News Group The ERA could have been on the 2023 ballot, but she decided to wait until the 2024 election, when turnout is expected to be much higher.
“This bill has to pass because, as we’ve learned, we’re all under attack state by state,” Kruger said. “Each state has to go its own way. We can’t rely on the federal system.”
Kruger said he will conduct virtual presentations closer to the election to inform voters about the ERA.
The process of enshrining these protections in the state constitution began when both houses of the state legislature passed the ERA twice in a row. The state Senate and Assembly voted to pass the amendment on July 1, 2022, and January 24, 2023. The decision to place the ERA on the ballot was challenged by state Supreme Court Justice Daniel Doyle, a Republican, who filed a lawsuit in Livingston County, western New York, in early May 2024.
Andrew Tarveritt, communications director and senior counsel for the New York Civil Rights Association, a ballot measure committee comprised of civil rights and reproductive rights groups that advocated for passage of the ERA, said Doyle's decision was not surprising, given that the anti-abortion movement was doing everything it could to block ballot measures protecting abortion rights.
“Anti-abortion politicians have been using the judiciary across the country to take away power from the people, block access to abortion, block reproductive freedom,” Taverit said. “They’ve been judge shopping. They want to make sure New Yorkers don’t even have a chance to vote on this amendment in November.”
Attorney General Letitia James’ office appealed Doyle’s decision, and a panel of judges from the New York Court of Appeals heard the case. The judges said those who had filed suit to block the ERA had missed the deadline to file their suit, and the measure was put back on the ballot on June 18.
“It is important that voters vote yes on the New York State Equal Rights Amendment because it closes loopholes in the state constitution.”
– Bonyen Lee-Gilmore, Vice President of Communications, National Institute of Reproductive Health
The current New York State Constitution protects only against racial and religious discrimination, and all other state measures to protect equal rights vary depending on who is in power. ERA protections will likely be able to withstand future changes in state government politics.
Bonnie Lee Gilmore, vice president of communications for the National Institute of Reproductive Health, one of New York's Citizens for Equal Rights groups, said conservative lawmakers are attacking the ERA because they believe their agenda runs counter to what voters actually want.
“It’s very telling that they don’t want voters to go to the ballot and have a say in what they can and can’t protect in this state,” Lee-Gilmore said. “We don’t want to leave our rights and our freedoms to the changing political winds. … It’s important that voters vote yes on the New York Equal Rights Amendment because we need to close the loopholes in our state constitution.”
Recently Politico In the article, opponents of the ERA cited age-related claims that the amendment would weaken statutory rape laws, allow minors to get gender-affirming medical care without parental consent, and allow minors to buy age-restricted products like alcohol. Lee-Gilmore said the ERA would have none of those effects and that these scare tactics were all false.
“They want to confuse people,” Lee-Gilmore said. “They want to play on people’s fears and all the misconceptions that people have about health care, reproductive health care, gender affirming care, things like that.”
Kruger said the misinformation campaign about the ERA was the biggest challenge voters had to overcome to pass the amendment.
“They know they can’t win the fight in New York State by saying, ‘We don’t want abortions,’” Kruger said. “So they pretend that this isn’t actually about abortion, but all that money comes from the pro-choice community.”
According to Taverit, ahead of the November election, the New York Citizens' Coalition for Equal Rights is working with 270 organizations across the state to build support for the ERA among voters.
“We have broad support across party lines. [and] “It's an ideological line,” Taverit said. “It's not something you see every day, and it's something we're really excited about. So we're going to go out and speak to every resident of New York state and let them know that their rights and their fundamental freedoms are on the ballot in November, and get people to vote.”