Proposition One up for a vote in New York State

ALBANY, N.Y. (NEWS10)– Known as Proposition One on the ballot, the Equal Rights Amendment would change the state constitution to expand discrimination protections to more people. That includes age, ethnicity, sexual orientation, as well as gender identity and pregnancy outcomes.

“I think most New Yorkers think we do have these rights,” said Senator Liz Krueger. “And we’ve passed many laws that say we have these rights. The dilemma is, if you end up in a discrimination lawsuit, and a court says we don’t see that in the constitution, we don’t have that right.”

Supporters of the amendment say that adding pregnancy outcomes would codify abortion in the state’s constitution.

Krueger, the amendment’s author, was asked why the term abortion wasn’t specifically used.

“It’s not just about abortion,” explained Krueger. “It’s about the right to have a child. It’s about the right to make decisions over health care and your own body and not have the state do that, but also not allow employers to think they have a right to determine those things for you.”

Some groups are worried that the broad language of the amendment will have unintended consequences.

In a statement, Senate Minority Leader Rob Ortt said,​​ “Proposition 1 is a radical attack on the rights of women and girls, especially in sports. New York Democrats are using this measure to push an extreme agenda that undermines fairness and common sense, and strips parents of their rights…”

“They’re making all this stuff up,” said Krueger. “I’ve worked with endless constitutional attorneys. These issues never even arose and since I’ve been following up with the same attorneys since people have been coming up with these sort of ridiculous hypotheticals, they’re like no, none of that is actually true.”

Eugene Welch, a trial lawyer for Tully Rinckey, said the proposition leaves a lot of unanswered questions.

“We don’t know what we are gonna get,” said Welch. “It’s a well-intended effort to make discrimination illegal for a lot more categories of people, but what does that mean in practice? That remains to be litigated in some court of New York State.”

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