On Election Day, voters in New York will decide on Proposition 1, also known as the “Equal Rights Amendment.” Proponents tout the measure as necessary to enshrine abortion in the state constitution, but critics point out that the word “abortion” does not appear anywhere in the text.
The referendum states: “No person shall be denied the equal protection of the laws of this state” and would extend all of those protections to everyone regardless of “race, color, ethnicity, national origin, age, disability, creed [or], religion, or sex, including sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, pregnancy, pregnancy outcomes, and reproductive healthcare and autonomy.”
Bobbie Anne Cox, a Westchester, New York-based constitutional attorney, recently told the New York Post that Proposition 1 “would put noncitizens and illegal immigrants on the same plan as citizens. It’s a Trojan horse of epic proportions.”
She added, “It covers anybody. That includes people who came here illegally and broke our laws. This is unbelievable."
Even Newsday, a left-leaning Long Island-based newspaper, has come out against Prop 1. In an editorial published Friday, the paper wrote, “Adopting Proposition One will encourage widespread challenges to existing civil rights and discrimination laws and flood the courts with litigation. Conflicting rulings will destabilize many institutions and individuals as they try to navigate these clashes."
“The amendment, for example, opens the door to judicial activism on contentious issues such as overriding parental control of medical decisions for minors,” it said. “ Could the age of 18 as legal consent to marry or the cutoff for youthful offender treatment by the courts fall by the wayside?”
The editorial goes on to call the referendum “an end run around the will of the people to have these choices made by their elected representatives.”
It concludes, “Newsday's editorial board recommends a NO vote on Proposition One.”
Kate McManus ✉
Kate McManus is a New Jersey-based Newsmax writer who's spent more than two decades as a journalist.
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