Women’s bodily autonomy will be on ballot in NY

Women’s Rights Awareness Campaign of LWVSC
March 5, 2024

The right to an abortion will be directly on the ballot in New York State in November 2024.
Wait! Abortion is legal in New York! So, what’s the big deal?

Abortion was legal in Alabama until it wasn’t. Alabama is one of the states that does not have
constitutional protection for women’s bodily autonomy. New York does not have
constitutional protection either. Which means the right to an abortion could be rescinded.

The good news? You can ensure that protection for yourself, your daughters and your
granddaughters by voting yes to the proposed amendment that will be on the ballot in the Fall
of 2024. If passed, it will be an amendment to the NYS Constitution.

The upcoming referendum would amend the New York Constitution and is essentially a legal
umbrella protecting marginalized New Yorkers from being subjected to any discrimination
because of race, color, ethnicity, national origin, age, disability, creed, religion, or sex,
including sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, pregnancy, pregnancy outcomes,
and reproductive healthcare and autonomy.

It’s especially crucial to protect reproductive rights at a time when draconian anti-choice
measures have been passed by several states following the Dobbs decision. Fourteen states
have imposed a total abortion ban—meaning terminations are never allowed in the cases of
rape, incest, lack of fetal viability or danger to the mother.

The consequences are horrifying. In the months between July 2022 and January 2024, nearly
65,000 women became pregnant through rape just in those 14 states (source: Journal of the
American Medical Society).

Low income women have been impacted the most by the overturning of Roe v Wade, since
they are the least able to afford to go to another state for care. State Attorneys General in the
14 states are even threatening to go after women who cross state lines for abortions, using
period-tracking apps, and email exchanges and travel reservations as a digital trail. Besides
violating the right to privacy and the right to bodily autonomy, this Big-Brother approach is
unethical. And chilling.

That’s why it’s imperative that you vote yes for the New York State Equal Rights Amendment.
On the November ballot, New Yorkers will have the opportunity to help protect the state’s
women and families where the Federal Government has so far failed.
Besides voting, you can also help the cause by signing the petition for a Federal Equal Rights
Amendment: https://www.sign4era.org.

Misrepresenting Susan B. Anthony on Abortion

by Linda McKenney, Storyteller and Historical Reenactor

Some anti-abortion activists are misrepresenting Susan B. Anthony, one of the early women’s rights leaders. They are claiming that Miss Anthony would support making abortions illegal if she were alive today.

This assertion is purported based on an article written anonymously that appeared in The Revolution, a women’s rights newspaper that Miss Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton published from 1868 to 1870. “A,” the author of the article referred to abortion as “child-murder.”

Because the article was signed “A,” these activists claim it was written by Miss Anthony herself. However, a study of every page of The Revolution reveals many articles signed “S.B.A.,” which would seem to indicate that when Miss Anthony authored an article, she used her own initials.

Additionally, upon scrutiny, one can see that many of the articles signed “A” were on subjects of which Miss Anthony had no expertise. And an article by “A” quarreled with The Revolution‘s position on capital and labor, which lead to a debate in a subsequent issue in which the editors addressed its author as “Mr. A,” which would strongly suggest that it was someone other than Miss Anthony.

While Miss Anthony used the word abortion in one of her speeches, she did not say that she supported making it illegal. She listed seeking an abortion as one of the possible consequences of being the wife of an alcoholic husband, who may impregnate his wife and then leave her with no means to support the child. Miss Anthony mentioned abortion again later in the same speech, this time only in the context of the injustice of laws that intimately affect women but are made and enforced by men.

Anthony’s long career of public speaking provided many occasions for her to speak about abortion, if she’d chosen to do so. The plain fact, however, is that Susan B. Anthony almost never referred to abortion, and when she did, she said nothing to indicate that she wanted it banned by law.