New York Moves to Bolster Abortion Access, Strengthen ‘Affirmative Action’
The New York State legislature has passed an “equal rights” amendment to the state Constitution that would bolster protections for “affirmative action” programs and strengthen a woman’s right to abortion by treating denial of the procedure as an act of discrimination based on sex.
The Equal Rights Amendment (S.8797B), which passed the state legislature on July 1, seeks to modify the New York State Constitution by adding a new section that expands the list of classes protected against discrimination and stipulating that one of these classes includes the right to abortion.
“This amendment clarifies that any state action that discriminates against a person based on a pregnancy outcome is a sex-based classification,” states the preamble to the amendment.
“The State shall not use its police power or power of the purse to burden, limit, or favor any type of reproductive decision making,” it adds.
‘Codifying the Right to an Abortion’
Currently, Section 11 of the Bill of Rights of the New York State Constitution contains a provision that tracks the wording of the federal equal protection clause and prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, creed, or religion.
The new amendment goes beyond that, introducing additional protected classes by also barring discrimination based on ethnicity, national origin, disability, and sex including pregnancy and pregnancy outcomes, sexual orientation, gender identity, and gender expression.
The preamble makes clear that it considers discrimination based on pregnancy—including abortion—a type of discrimination based on sex and that it seeks to strengthen abortion access by treating “the failure to provide reasonable accommodations” to those seeking to terminate an unwanted pregnancy as an act of discrimination.
Before it becomes law, the amendment still needs to pass again in the next legislative session before being put to a referendum for final approval.
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul hailed the passage of the amendment,
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