NEW YORK — Proposition 1, often referred to by its Democratic Party boosters as the “Equal Rights Amendment” or the “Equal Protection of the Law Amendment,” will be on the ballot in New York Nov. 5. The measure is being sold as a way to “enshrine abortion rights in our state Constitution,” Gov. Kathy Hochul said in an Oct. 16 opinion piece in the New York Daily News.
“A woman’s right to choose to have an abortion is not under threat in New York state,” Sara Lobman, Socialist Workers Party candidate for U.S. Senate from New York, told a recent Militant Labor Forum. “Abortion was effectively decriminalized in the state in 1970 — three years before Roe v. Wade went into effect. It has been protected by statute under New York law since 2019.
“Proposition 1 is a vote-catching gimmick by the Democratic Party, with some dangerous implications for the rights of working people. It seeks to exploit widespread support for women’s rights to draw working people more tightly into capitalist politics. What we need is to break ourselves out of that grip. Working people should vote ‘No’ on Prop 1,” Lobman said.
The proposition never mentions the words “women” or “abortion.” Instead, the proposed amendment would add a host of categories for “protected status” into the Constitution — “ethnicity, national origin, age, disability, or sex.” In case anyone would mistake the term “sex” here to mean outlawing discrimination against women, the proposition defines it instead as “including sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, pregnancy, pregnancy outcomes, and reproductive healthcare and autonomy.”
The second section of the proposition, hidden text that will not even appear on the ballot, says any action taken to correct past unfairness against the newly protected classes, even if it fosters discrimination against others, is acceptable.
“Opposition to discrimination is a deeply held sentiment in the working class and among broad layers of society — the product of mass mobilizations of the labor movement, and on the part of women, Blacks and other oppressed nationalities,” Lobman said. “Backers of Proposition 1 seek to exploit this sentiment to settle social questions, which are very much still in debate throughout society, with a vaguely written proposition that promotes discrimination.”
The New York State Constitution already guarantees every person “equal protection of the laws” and prohibits discrimination “because of race, color, creed or religion.” There are laws on the books that protect older workers against age discrimination.
The new amendment’s proposal to ban age discrimination opens the door to overturning age-of-consent laws, which protect children from abuse. It poses other troubling questions, as well.
Should school authorities and individuals be free to promote or pressure children to “change their gender”? Can children be given drugs or surgeries without their parents’ permission?
Should males who now identify as women be able to compete in women’s sports? Or enter women’s locker rooms?
At a demonstration near City Hall in New York City in late August, opponents of the proposition carried signs saying, “Don’t ERAse girls sports.”
“What this proposal 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,” Inez Stepman from Independent Women’s Voice told the Gothamist at the rally.
What is the road forward?
A number of strikes and labor battles are going on today, where working people are beginning to use our unions to address the deteriorating conditions we face, and the assaults on workers’ rights that are a result of the crisis of capitalism. The rising costs of housing, food, child care and medical care fall hardest on women. Lack of full-time, good-paying jobs make it difficult for young people to move out of their parents’ home, let alone choose to raise a family.
The campaign to pass Proposition 1 points away from fighting around those and other very real challenges working people face. It points away from mobilizing the labor movement, made up of the main organizations of the working class, to speak out and act as tribunes of the people on all economic and social questions, including war.
“In the course of our own independent struggles, workers gain confidence in ourselves as a class,” Lobman explains as she campaigns for the Socialist Workers Party ticket in 2024.
“There is an answer to fighting discrimination where it exists — against Blacks, women and others. It’s through independent working-class struggle, not support of the capitalist system that breeds and thrives on divisions and discrimination. It’s through breaking with Democrats and Republicans and building a party of labor. It’s through joining the fight for the working-class to take political power and begin organizing society in the interests of the vast majority in the U.S. and around the world.
‘If you’re going to vote on Nov. 5, vote Socialist Workers Party!”