New Yorkers Pass Historic Amendment To Expand Protections For Pregnant People

The passage of Proposition 1 marks the first time an equal rights clause has been expanded to include pregnant people and pregnancy outcomes.

New Yorkers voted on Tuesday to expand protections for pregnant people and safeguard abortion care from future attacks.

Voters successfully passed Proposition 1, which changes the state’s Equal Rights Amendment to include protections for “pregnancy, pregnancy outcomes, and reproductive healthcare and autonomy.” It’s the first time an equal rights clause has been expanded to include pregnant people and pregnancy outcomes.

“This constitutionalizes protections for abortion in an equality framework,” Katharine Bodde, interim co-director of policy at the ACLU of New York, told HuffPost last week.

Although Prop. 1 does not explicitly use the term “abortion,” including protections for pregnancy outcomes and reproductive decisions in the state constitution further protects abortion. The term “pregnancy outcomes” includes live birth, miscarriage, stillbirth and abortion care, policy experts told HuffPost. It will also add constitutional protections for birth control and in vitro fertilization, both of which have been under threat from anti-abortion Republicans across the country.

One of the main goals of Prop. 1 is to protect people from being criminalized or punished for pregnancy outcomes such as miscarriage and stillbirth. Pregnancy criminalization occurred when Roe v. Wade was intact, and experts agree incidences have likely increased since Roe was overturned in 2022.