New York Moves to Make Abortion a Constitutional Right

A New York appellate court decided this week to overrule a lower court’s decision and put a proposed amendment enshrining abortion in the Empire State’s constitution back on November’s ballot.

After New York Republicans challenged the proposed amendment, Livingston County Judge Daniel J. Doyle ruled early last month that the state legislature had “violated” the New York constitution in approving the proposed amendment, called the “Equal Rights Amendment” (ERA), due to it appearing too early on ballots. According to New York constitutional procedure, the state’s attorney general must issue a memo on the proposals prior to their approval by the legislature. Since the legislature voted to approve the measures before any memo was delivered, Doyle determined that the proposed amendment would be struck from the ballot.

The Fourth Judicial Department of the New York Appellate Court unanimously decided on Tuesday to reverse that decision. The court ruled that the complaint originally brought was a procedural one, not a constitutional one, and further agreed with the pro-abortion defendants’ argument that the statute of limitations (four months) to bring that procedural complaint had already expired. While the court did admit that there may be a question of whether or not the ERA’s introduction proceeded constitutionally, it ultimately determined that the way in which the complaint was brought was the wrong means of challenging the proposed amendment. “The remaining contentions are academic in light of our determination,” the court concluded.