Right-wing groups have seized on vague language in a ballot proposal to protect abortion access in New York, arguing that the initiative will open the door to more transgender kids in girls’ sports and an erosion of “parents’ rights.” Their objection highlights the confusion voters may face this November when voting on Proposal Number One, which supporters call the Equal Rights Amendment. Advocates and Democrats got the proposal on the ballot in response to the U.S. Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade in 2022. Yet the ballot initiative doesn’t include the word “abortion.” Instead, it explicitly prohibits discrimination by “ethnicity, national origin, age, disability, and sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, pregnancy, pregnancy outcomes, and reproductive health care and autonomy.” At a rally near New York City Hall this week, speakers from Moms for Liberty — which has promoted book bans and railed against how race and LGBTQ+ history are taught in schools across the country — claimed that the proposal is a Trojan horse for a cultural overhaul. Other attendees, including vaccine skeptics and supporters of former President Donald Trump, hurled anti-trans insults. Elena Chin of Moms for Liberty said she worried that the proposed protections for age and gender would allow more children to transition without parents’ knowledge or consent. She also said she worried it would result in more trans kids playing on girls’ sports teams. “The law is broad. It is vague,” said Chin. “People don’t really know what they’re voting for. The marketing of this bill is deceptive. They’re making it about abortion. They’re making it about discrimination. That’s not what it’s about at all.” Inez Stepman from Independent Women’s Voice, which advocates for athletes to play on teams according to their biological sex, called the proposal a “bait-and-switch.” “What this proposition will actually do is force spaces and opportunities, including sports, prisons, locker rooms, domestic abuse shelters, any single-sex space meant for women to include men,” Stepman said at the rally. Sasha Ahuja, campaign director with New Yorkers for Equal Rights, which supports the proposal, stridently pushed back against the claims at the rally. “That narrative is one that’s being pushed by extremists who are using a small handful of innocent kids as political pawns,” she said. “They’re trying to divide and distract New Yorkers from what this amendment is actually about. It’s about guaranteeing our personal freedoms and protecting the right to abortion.” But she agreed that the language is confusing, and added that the text “does a bit of a disservice to New York voters.” “It’s hiding the ball a little bit about the essential impacts and it doesn’t make it explicit that this amendment is protecting all of our rights and freedoms, including the right to abortion,” said Ahuja. The debate over the proposal’s intent is likely to heat up as the election nears, with abortion access at the center of the presidential race. Last week, a state Supreme Court judge rejected an effort by Democrats to force the Board of Elections to amend the proposal’s language to clarify it is intended to protect abortion access and LGBTQ+ rights. “The central problem with these arguments arises out of the language of the amendment itself,” Judge David Weinstein wrote. Jennifer Weiss-Wolf, Executive director of the Birnbaum Women’s Leadership Center at NYU School of Law, said she would have preferred “stronger” language about abortion access in the proposition. But she called the notion that it would alter how trans children are treated in schools, sports or medical settings “a misinformation campaign.” “There are laws already on the books in the state that this is not going to change,” she said. “I really think that what is happening is we’re seeing an extensive [public relations] campaign to try to distract people. … I think that it’s important to just remember that that is a political strategy.”
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