The New York Equal Rights Amendment will be on the ballot this November! After passing in the NYS legislature in 2022 and 2023, it will go to NY voters on November 5, 2024. This comes at a critical time in US history when state legislatures across the country are passing draconian abortion bans and attacking contraception.

“The New York State Equal Rights Amendment is an amendment to New York’s State Constitution that adds explicit protections for people who experience discrimination. At a moment in time when we are seeing state governments and courts walk rights backwards, this proposal embeds explicit protections within our state constitution.

Adding to existing enumerated protections against discrimination based on race and religion, this amendment would explicitly prohibit discrimination based on a person’s ethnicity, national origin, age, disability, and sex—including their sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, pregnancy and pregnancy outcomes, reproductive healthcare and autonomy.

This Amendment ensures that New York’s founding document and our strongest legal protections extend to all New Yorkers the right to be free from discrimination, particularly those who have faced severe and pervasive injustice.” New Yorkers for Equal Rights

Across the US states, abortion is on the ballot. It looks like as many as 13 states may have constitutional amendments intended to enshrine abortion rights in individual state constitutions.  The processes are lengthy and arduous, and vary from state-to-state. In many states voters must collect a sizable number of signatures. In New York, a proposed amendment must pass in two different legislative sessions.