The state of New York mobilized on Friday to enshrine the right to abortion and access to contraception in its constitutionbefore a seismic sentence of the Supreme Court of the United States that upended reproductive rights in the country.
The state senate “moved forward on the first approval of an amendment to codify the right to abortion and the right to contraception in the State Constitution,” he said in a statement.
New York state law already allows abortion, so the move will add an extra layer of legal protection for the procedure.
The amendment also seeks to “update the existing Equal Rights Amendment to extend current protections to several new classes, including those based on sex, disability, national origin, ethnicity and age,” he said.
After approval in the Senate, the legislation will then proceed to the state Assembly, where it is expected to pass.
So voters will go to the polls directly in a referendum.
Conservatives in America have been working for decades to annul Roe v. Wadethe 1973 Supreme Court ruling that establishes that the US Constitution provides for the right to abortion.
Last month they succeeded when the new conservative majority on the highest court overturned that ruling in a widely anticipated decision, which nonetheless sparked nationwide protests and drawn international condemnation.
The decision gave the power back to the states to establish their own regulations on abortion. Half of them are expected to ban or severely restrict it.
Meanwhile, others have declared themselves “sanctuaries” of abortion and promised to protect it, as well as other rights such as homosexual marriage, which now progressives fear is in the sights of the Court.
