We Did It, New York!

Prop. 1 passes, protecting abortion in the state constitution

I’m not going to lie, I was worried there for a minute! But my home state came through: New York voters passed the equal rights amendment, Prop. 1, protecting abortion rights in the state constitution.

Huge congratulations to New Yorkers for Equal Rights, who worked so hard to make this happen.

Why was I nervous? Because while New York is massively pro-choice, anti-abortion groups had launched an extremely well-funded campaign in a last ditch effort to confuse voters about Prop. 1. Their disinformation not only claimed that the amendment would eradicate parental rights, but also relied on anti-trans talking points. We even saw signs across the state telling people to “protect girls sports” by voting ‘no’ on Prop 1. Disgusting.

What makes Prop. 1 so different than other abortion rights measures is that it’s an equal rights amendment. That means it will add protections in the state constitution to prohibit discrimination of all sorts—including discrimination based on pregnancy status. 

There was some concern that voters wouldn’t understand that this was a pro-choice measure because New York Republicans won a legal battle to keep ‘abortion’ out of the amendment language. (We know why they did that: Abortion rights are popular and they didn’t want to tip voters off.) Thankfully, the Prop. 1 campaign—and New York voters!—came through.

What’s more, that language gap may actually prove to be helpful now that the amendment has passed. Because unlike other states, New York’s measure has no ‘viability’ restriction. 

I’ll have more for you in the coming days about Prop. 1 and what the state will look like with our new equal rights amendment. But in the meantime, thank you to the incredible people who worked so hard to get this measure passed. 

We did it, New York!