What does the new Equal Rights Amendment protect?

You don’t need us to remind you that on the whole, Election Day was a big, fat W for the absolute worst that humanity has to offer. But in the interest of not embracing doomerism, we can take space to appreciate the wins of the day, and New York State had a big one — the long-awaited passage of Prop. 1, or our state-level version of the Equal Rights Amendment.

The amendment enshrines various reproductive rights including abortion access and IVF treatment into our state constitution, as well as protection from government discrimination based on “gender, age, ethnicity, pregnancy status, disability status, or whether someone is LGBT.” 

If you’re wondering, “Aren’t those all rights we already had?” you’re correct; none of the rights included in our ERA are actually new for New Yorkers. 

“Everything that was in Prop. 1 was and is currently New York State law,” said Kim Moscaritolo, a Democratic district leader on the Upper East Side who worked with the New Yorkers for Equal Rights campaign.

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Rather than creating any new rights, per se, the point of Prop. 1 was to make it a hell of a lot harder for future state leaders to take abortion access or anti-discrimination laws off the table on a whim. 

“Rather than passing a law, they would have to amend our [state] constitution, which would be much more difficult to do,” Moscaritolo told The Groove.

Given the widely-reported rightward shift among voters across New York City and State this past Tuesday, the potential of hostile future leadership is no idle threat.

“If that happens at the state level, which we saw with Lee Zeldin only being six points behind Kathy Hochul in 2022, Prop. 1 protects us to ensure no far-right governor or legislature can just take away our reproductive freedoms and many of our fundamental rights,” said Erica Vladimer, a New York State Democratic committee member for the 76th assembly district in Manhattan.

Vladimer points to the higher-level example of Roe v. Wade being overturned, and with it, any federally mandated protections for abortion.

“Everyone was like, ‘We don’t need to codify [abortion access], we have Roe v. Wade, we’re good,” she said. “But then it was like, ‘Oh shit, no we’re not.’ ”

She added: “We’re taking this step to make sure that we don’t run into a Roe v. Wade-style stripping of our rights on the state level."

Of course, all this state-level maneuvering is necessary in part because we still don’t have an ERA at the national level. (A proposal for a federal version of an Equal Rights Amendment for gender equality was first drafted in 1923, was approved by Congress in 1972, has since been ratified by the majority of states, and as of press time, is nowhere near becoming federal law.)

And the horrible Sword of Damocles hanging over all this is that were the incoming Trump administration to make good on its promises to enact a federal abortion ban — not to mention any number of other government-mandated discriminatory practices — that would override any rights we’ve won for ourselves on the state level.

It’s hard to really bask in the win of the ERA in this environment, but make no mistake that it is indeed still a big win. And with that victory now secured, advocates are turning their attention to “making sure services are available for New Yorkers as well as women who come here from other states,” Moscaritolo said. “And just doing everything in our power to fight any effort by the federal government to put in place any kind of national abortion ban.”