In June, New York Court of Appeals ruled unanimously to keep it Equal Rights Amendment on the November ballot after a state Supreme Court justice threw it out in May. If voters pass the ERA, the amendment would be added to the state constitution and provide expanded protections against discrimination based on race, national origin, age, disability and gender – including sexual orientation, gender identity and gender expression – specifically , pregnancy outcomes and reproductive autonomy, among others.
Codification of the ERA in the New York Bill of Rights would be the first time a state constitution expressly states Gender discrimination includes discrimination based on a person’s pregnancy or the outcome of their pregnancy, according to the NYCLU.
New York State Senator Elizabeth Krueger, who co-sponsored the bill in 2022, has worked to bring the ERA to voters for the past five years. She said Rewire News Group the ERA could have been placed on the 2023 ballot, but decided to wait for the 2024 presidential election, which is expected to have a much higher voter turnout.
“We need this to pass because, as we’ve learned, state by state, we’re all under attack,” Kruger said. “Each state will have to go its own way, because we won’t be able to rely on the federal system.”
Kruger said she will lead a virtual presentation closer to the election to help educate voters about the ERA.
The process of enshrining these protections in the state constitution began with both houses of the state legislature passing the EEA in two consecutive sessions. The state senate and assembly voted to pass the amendment on July 1, 2022, and again on January 24, 2023. The decision to put the ERA on the ballot was challenged in early May 2024 by state Supreme Court Justice Daniel Doyle, a Republican who issued a lawsuit in Livingston County in western New York.
Andrew Taverrite, communications director and senior advisor for New Yorkers for Equal Rightsa ballot initiative committee made up of civil and reproductive rights groups that support passage of the ERA said Doyle’s decision was not surprising given that the anti-abortion movement is doing everything it can to block pro-rights ballots of abortions.
“Anti-abortion politicians are working in courthouses across the country to use the judiciary to take power away from the people, blocking access to abortion, blocking reproductive freedoms,” Taverrite said. “They’re gone judge shopping. They wanted to make sure that New Yorkers wouldn’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 a New York appeals court heard the case. The judges said those who testified to block the NRA missed the deadline to sue and put the measure back on the June 18 ballot.
“It is critical that voters vote yes on the New York Equal Rights Amendment because we need to close these loopholes in the state constitution.”
– Bonyen Lee-Gilmore, vice president of communications at the National Institutes for Reproductive Health
Currently, the New York state constitution only protects against racial and religious discrimination, and all other state measures to protect equal rights are at the whim of whoever is in power. The ERA’s protections will be able to withstand any future changes in political leanings in state government.
Bonyen Lee-Gilmore, vice president of communications at National Institutes for Reproductive Health— one of New Yorkers for Equal Rights — said conservative lawmakers’ attacks on the ERA show they believe their agenda is at odds with what voters really want.
“It’s very telling that they don’t want voters to go to the polls and they don’t want voters to have a say in what their state can and can’t protect,” Lee-Gilmore said. “We do not want to leave our rights and freedoms to the changing political winds. … It is critical that voters vote yes on the New York Equal Rights Amendment because we need to close these loopholes in the state constitution.”
In a recently Politico article, opponents of the ERA reported that the amendment could weaken rape laws, allow minors to receive gender-affirming health care without parental consent, and allow minors to purchase age-restricted products such as alcohol, among other things age-related arguments. Lee-Gilmore said the ERA will not have those results and that these scare tactics are all misinformation.
“They want to confuse people,” Lee-Gilmore said. “They want to prey on people’s fears and all kinds of misconceptions that people might have about health care, reproductive health, gender-affirming care, all of that.”
Krueger said the disinformation campaign against the ERA is the biggest challenge to getting the amendment approved by voters.
“They’re going to go down that road because they know that in New York state they can’t win a race by saying, ‘We don’t want abortion,'” Kruger said. “So while they’re pretending it’s not really about abortion, the money is all coming from the anti-choice funding community.”
Ahead of the November election, New Yorkers for Equal Rights is working with 270 groups across the state to build support for the ERA among voters, according to Taverrite.
“We have broad support across party lines [and] ideological lines,” Taverrite said. “That’s not something you see every day and it’s something we’re really excited about. So we’re going out to talk to all New Yorkers across the state, making sure they know their rights and fundamental freedoms are on the ballot in November, and getting people to vote yes.”
