New York State Friday enshrined women’s right to abortion and contraception in its constitution, taking the lead in opposing a resounding US Supreme Court ruling that has transformed reproductive rights across the country.
The state Senate approved an “amendment to enshrine the right to abortion and the right to provide contraceptives to women in the state constitution,” according to a statement by the council.
New York state law already legalizes abortion, but the move would further protect the legal right to the practice.
The statement added that the amendment also seeks to “modernize the amendment related to equal rights to include other categories, such as those that are classified on the basis of sex, disability, origin, race or age.”
Once passed in the Senate, the legislation will go to the state parliament, which is expected to pass it.
Voters will vote on it directly in a referendum.
Conservatives in the United States have been working for decades to overturn the 1973 Supreme Court ruling in the case known as “Roe v. Wade” that established the right to abortion in the US Constitution.
They achieved their goal after the Supreme Court last month overturned the Roe v. Wade ruling by a new majority vote of conservative justices.
Although the decision was expected, it sparked nationwide protests and drew international condemnation.
The court’s decision restored the states’ authority to set their own rules regarding abortion, and it is expected that more than half of the states will ban this practice or tighten the conditions associated with it.
Other states have declared “sanctuaries” for the practice and pledged to protect the right to abortion among other rights, including same-sex marriage, which progressives fear is a target of the court.
“The overturning of Roe v. Wade makes clear that New York State must continue to stand with women and be a national model in protecting women and individual rights,” New York Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins said in the statement.
