The amendment’s passage Friday is the first step toward adding the language to the New York Constitution. Lawmakers will have to vote again to pass the amendment in the next legislative session next year and then voters will have to vote to pass it in a referendum before it can go into effect.
The amendment language specifically mentions protections for rights related to pregnancy, pregnancy outcomes and reproductive health care and autonomy.
It reads in part: “No one may, because of race, color, ethnicity, national origin, age, disability, creed [or]religion or gender, including sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, pregnancy, pregnancy outcomes and reproductive health care and autonomy, are subject to discrimination in [his or her] their civil rights by any other person or by any firm, company or institution, or by the state or any agency or subdivision of the state, in accordance with the law.”
The state Senate passed Amendment 49-14 Friday and the state assembly passed Amendment 98-43 later in the evening.
New York Governor Kathy Hochul told reporters at a news conference earlier Friday that enshrining abortion rights in the state constitution “will protect reproductive health in New York State for generations to come.”
Hochul called the lawmaker this week in an extraordinary session to begin the process of enshrining abortion rights and to pass another piece of legislation limiting the concealed carrying of weapons in New York. Both came in response to recent US Supreme Court rulings.
The Supreme Court in recent days overturned Roe v. Wade, as well as another landmark case over restrictions on carrying a concealed gun outdoors in the state.
This story was updated Friday with additional details.
