By Karen Rubin, News-Photos-Features.com , [email protected] You might reasonably question why New York State needs to vote in favor of the Equal Rights Amendment on the November ballot.
After all, we are considered a “Blue” state which has passed laws protecting women’s reproductive rights, and has stood firm on defending rights based on gender, race, ethnicity, and disability. That is in fact what New York Republicans are arguing – we don’t need an Equal Rights Amendment. Except that the last gubernatorial election – indeed, every election to decide control of the state legislature – shows how vulnerable are the rights we may naively take for granted.
The next governor could overturn what Governor Kathy Hochul has done to protect women – amassing abortion medication, requiring telemedicine, access to clinics, providing sanctuary for women living under their state’s ban – and Attorney General Letitia James’ ability to defend transgender athletes from Nassau County’s ban. But just this month, the Republican supermajority on the Nassau County Legislature rammed through a total ban on wearing a mask in public which discriminates and disadvantages the disabled community and racial groups too often targeted for unjust policing. In fact, over the past decade alone, state politicians have introduced 53 anti-abortion bills.
There is an alarming recognition that rights we take for granted are not secure. We have seen how stunningly easy it is to impose obstacles that make “freedom” a mirage by lawmakers even before the theocrats on the Supreme Court overturned the 50-year precedent of Roe v. Wade which theoretically enshrined reproductive rights as constitutionally protected; voting rights, affirmative action, emergency healthcare, workers rights have also been swept aside.
People should be realizing how easy it would be if and when a Republican takes over the Governor’s mansion, armed with the misogynistic, racist, fascist Project 2025 operating manual, to dispatch these rights and freedoms. You would think the 13 th , 14 th , and 15 th amendments passed after the Civil War to end slavery and establish the equal rights of all persons, and the 8 th amendment against cruel and unusual punishment (forcing a woman to endure pain, anxiety of health, death, and being unable to address any trauma her fetus is experiencing) would have been enough to insure a woman’s bodily autonomy and an equal right to self-determination as any man. (“Can you think of any laws that give the government the power to make decisions about the male body?" then Senator Kamala Harris asked Brett Kavanaugh during his confirmation hearing.
) But clearly that is not the case in 22 states that ban or severely restrict abortion, most with stiff legal penalties for healthcare providers, family or anyone who assists them, and several which are eyeing surveilling pregnant women and making it illegal for a pregnant woman to travel out of state – that is 25 million women and girls of reproductive age who no longer have autonomy over their bodies or their lives. Indeed, it is shameful that the U.S.
Congress has allowed the federal Equal Rights Amendment languish without being added to the Constitution after receiving the required 38 th state’s ratification (Virginia) – especially since you have a potential president (and Project 2025 operating manual) threatening women’s reproductive freedom, LGBTQ+ rights, and which aims to overturn anti-discrimination rights based on race, gender, disability. Trump and the MAGA Republicans are eager to go back to a time when a single woman couldn’t get a mortgage or a business loan or rent an apartment; businesses did not have to accommodate people with disabilities and could discriminate in hiring based on race, gender, age, disability, ethnicity. (Senator Kirsten Gillibrand only recently introduced a joint resolution to officially add the Equal Rights Amendment to the Constitution, in order to finally ensure that gender-based discrimination is unconstitutional and provide the legal framework to restore reproductive rights across the country.
“With the GOP targeting reproductive freedoms and civil rights more and more each day, codifying the Equal Rights Amendment has never been more important,” she stated.) Indeed, if a MAGA Republican Congress passes a nationwide abortion ban, without the protections of Roe, it would supercede New York State’s protections, which is why this fight is at all levels of government. New York’s Equal Rights Amendment not only protects women’s reproductive freedom and autonomy and right to self-determination, but it also closes loopholes in the state constitution to make sure that no New Yorker can be discriminated against by the government, regardless of gender, age, ethnicity, pregnancy status, disability status, or whether someone is LGBTQ+.
“Many of us feel like we already have these protections – but now we need to make them permanent. Because no one should be discriminated against because of who they are, especially by those in power,” states the New Yorkers for Equal Rights, a coalition advocating for Proposition 1 (nyequalrights.org).
It is telling that New York State Republicans, now the party of exclusion, discrimination, misogyny, racism (they actually want to make Diversity, Equality and Inclusion policies illegal in government, public schools and businesses) for which “Equal” is an anathema, have done everything they could to have the amendment pulled from the ballot this November and now are shifting toward a disinformation campaign. Republicans are attacking the NYS ERA as being about transgender athletes (they consider boys) playing on girls’ teams and reproductive freedom being about murdering babies after birth (illegal everywhere while late-term abortions are extremely rare and always involve danger to the mother or fetus that has severe, if not fatal, abnormalities). A Newsday/Siena poll shows Long Islanders strongly favoring the proposed Equal Rights Amendment by 65% to 26%, but the likely disinformation/misinformation campaign has yet to kick in __________________________ © 2024 News & Photo Features Syndicate, a division of Workstyles, Inc.
All rights reserved. For editorial feature and photo information, go to www.news-photos-features.
com , email [email protected] . Blogging at www.
dailykos.com/blogs/NewsPhotosFeatures . ‘Like’ us at facebook.
com/ NewsPhotoFeatures, Tweet @KarenBRubin.
