The Fight Over Proposition 1 in New York

Good morning. It’s Thursday. Today we’ll look at why a statewide ballot measure to protect reproductive rights may be in trouble. We’ll also look at whether two adversaries — Letitia James, the state attorney general, and former Gov. Andrew Cuomo — will end up running against each other for mayor.

Hannah Kutten, a volunteer canvassing on behalf of the New York ballot measure known as Proposition 1, spoke with a voter in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn.Credit…Andres Kudacki for The New York Times

Two years after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, Vice President Kamala Harris’s campaign is trying to transform women in battleground states into an organizing force in the contest against former President Donald Trump. In New York, which regularly elects Democrats to statewide offices, you may think that a ballot measure to protect reproductive rights would pass by a wide margin.

As Election Day approaches, volunteers are going door to door. But the measure, known as Proposition 1, has become a target for Republican opponents who see it as an attack on family values. I asked Benjamin Oreskes, a Metro reporter who has followed Proposition 1, to explain why this update to the state’s Equal Rights Amendment may be in trouble.

What would Proposition 1 do?

The push for this constitutional amendment began after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, eliminating the constitutional right to abortion, in 2022. The decision led elected officials and activists in New York and other states to try and enshrine these protections, which already existed under state law in New York, in their constitutions.

If Proposition 1 passes, the right to an abortion — as well as freedom from discrimination based on disability, gender, sexuality and ethnicity, among other things — will become part of the State Constitution. Supporters say that the change will make it harder to restrict access to those rights if politicians who oppose gay marriage or abortion come to power in New York.