The New York State Legislature has passed an Equal Rights Amendment that would include the right for pregnant people to choose abortion.
It comes two days after the 50th anniversary of the landmark U.S. Supreme Court abortion rights decision Roe v. Wade, which was overturned last year.
Gov. Kathy Hochul, speaking Tuesday at a rally held by Planned Parenthood of New York, said that it was supposed to be a celebration of a half-century of abortion rights in the United States, but the Dobbs decision that overturned Roe changed all that.
“And all of a sudden, what we came here and rallied about for years, that possibility that someone would touch these rights and unravel them in our lifetime, actually happened,” Hochul said.
Hochul, the first woman to be elected governor in New York, said she’s the first governor in the history of the state to have ever been pregnant.
She also said access to abortion will not be curtailed in the state.
The governor highlighted legislation that would allow pharmacists in New York to offer prescriptions for medication abortions, offer higher Medicaid reimbursement rates for women’s reproductive health services, and the final passage of an Equal Rights Amendment to ensure abortion rights in New York.
“We will enshrine these rights, not just in law, but in the constitution of the state of New York,” Hochul said, to applause.
The Senate sponsor of the Equal Rights Amendment, Sen. Liz Krueger, said the measure also includes protections for New Yorkers with disabilities, the elderly, and members of the LGBTQ community who were not specifically protected under earlier versions of the constitution.
The amendment also states that pregnant people cannot face discrimination, regardless of the outcome of their pregnancy, though it does not specifically mention abortion. Krueger said the wording was crafted with the consultation of constitutional law experts to make it as “inclusive as possible.”
“Pregnancy outcomes can mean all kinds of outcomes," Kruger said. “It can mean carrying to term with a healthy baby. It can mean miscarriage. It can mean ending a pregnancy through abortion.”
If a future Congress and president agree to ban or strictly limit access to abortion through a federal law, the amendment to New York’s constitution would not supersede federal law. Abortion would still be banned or limited in New York if Congress were to outlaw the procedure.
But supporters, including Andrea Miller of the National Institute for Reproductive Health Action Fund, said the ballot amendment, and similar measures going before voters in other states, could help bolster a legal argument to demonstrate that a federal abortion ban is not the will of the people.
“It sends a strong message, especially when it comes from the voters,” said Miller, who added the outcome of the mid-term elections in 2022 showed that Americans were displeased with the Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision.
“And that’s why this is so important,” she said.
In order to amend New York’s constitution, a proposal must be approved by two successively elected state Legislatures before it can be ratified by voters.
The first passage of the measure occurred last June, before the November elections and the new term of the Legislature, which began in 2023. A second passage of the Equal Rights Amendment means that the measure can go on the ballot.
Supporters are waiting until the 2024 elections, though, to place it there. It will be a presidential election year with an expected better voter turnout than during this year’s primarily local elections.
