What Does Prop 1 add to New York’s Abortion Access? Nothing.
Opinion Advocates for ideas and draws conclusions based on the author/producer’s interpretation of facts and data.
By Kylie Bursch
Across the country, people flock to states for forbidden activities, materials and procedures. For some it’s casinos, others marijuana, but for New York State, it’s abortion.
New York asserts its support of abortion anywhere it can. This year, that includes $100 million for increasing abortion services, $36 million for abortion-providing businesses, $25 million toward making the state an “abortion safe haven,” and $10 million for increasing security at abortion facilities. Wow, $171 million. New York has a lot of problems, but abortion access isn’t one of them.
This much time, effort and money has done exactly what it has intended to. New York has one of the highest abortion rates in the country, according to U.S. News & World Report, placing it second behind California.
Unlike more moderate states on abortion, New York has no abortion-related wait periods, parental notification laws or statutes that require the Department of Health to track, report and publish abortion complication data. In New York, abortions can also be obtained throughout all nine months of pregnancy for broad reasons, including the pregnant mother’s familial status.
New York is responsible for between 10.8 percent and 18.2 percent of later term abortions in the country. About 2,000 children in New York are aborted annually at 20-plus weeks gestation, according to the state’s most recent, published vital statistics spanning a 10-year period.
Abortion is a lot of things in New York but it’s not underfunded, rare or in danger of going away. So, what does Proposition 1, or the so-called Equal Rights Amendment, add?
Some argue that Prop 1 is necessary to enshrine abortion rights in the state constitution, protecting them from potential future legal challenges. However, this argument overlooks the fact that New York already has strong protections for abortion access. The state’s laws are among the most liberal in the nation, and the state has a history of defending abortion rights in court.
Additionally, Prop 1 could have far-reaching unintended consequences. By codifying abortion rights in the constitution, the state limits its ability to address complex issues surrounding abortion through legislation and public debate. This could undermine the ability of elected officials to represent the will of the people on this important issue as the body of social and scientific research about the issue continues to grow. Prop 1 would make it so that common-sense measures such as parental notification or clinic reporting and safety requirements could be struck down without even so much as a debate.
New York doesn’t need Prop 1. What it needs is fair and open dialogue about an issue that asks us, as New Yorkers, serious questions about life, autonomy and how to live in fairness and freedom with one another. Let us approach this issue with caution and deliberation, not silencing voices for decades to come.
Kylie Bursch represents Feminists Choosing Life of New York is a statewide human rights coalition and promotes whole life feminism and consistent life ethic.
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