A state judge in New York has shot down a pro-abortion ballot measure just ahead of the November election, dealing a blow to Democrats who hoped to use the initiative as a top campaign issue this fall.
A judge in Livingston County ruled on Tuesday that Democratic legislators did not follow the constitutionally required steps to place the measure on the ballot, according to the New York Post.
State Supreme Court Justice Daniel Doyle found that they approved the measure before obtaining a legal opinion from state Attorney General Letitia James’ office, the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle reported.
New York already has some of the strongest protections for abortion and abortionists in the country, yet Democrats in the Empire State have been trying to make abortion a central issue in this year’s election with absurd claims that it is endangered in a deep-blue state that is fully controlled by Democrats.
The Democratic Party hopes to use the initiative to boost voter turnout.
“Our decades-long fight to protect equality and reproductive freedom will not be thrown off track by one extremist judge and I look forward to casting my ballot for the Equal Rights Amendment in November,” Gov. Kathy Hochul said in a statement.
Critics of the ballot measure said the language is an attack on parental rights because it would make it illegal to deny a minor’s request for an abortion — or other “health” services, such as “transgender” procedures.
The measure would ask New York voters if they support adding language to the state constitution saying that people cannot be denied rights based on their “ethnicity, national origin, age, and disability” or “sex, including sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, pregnancy, pregnancy outcomes, and reproductive healthcare and autonomy.”
Detractors said that not only would parents be prohibited from having a say in abortions for their children, but the measure also would force schools to adopt the “transgender” agenda.
Are you pro-life?
“Schools would be required to permit biological males to compete on girls’ sports teams if voters approve this amendment,” the Coalition to Protect Kids said in a statement last month, according to the Post.
Critics blasted the measure as “the Parent Replacement Act,” with the Coalition to Protect Kids saying it “opens the floodgates” for government interference in families.
“This ballot initiative is written so broadly and so poorly that it could cause irreparable harm to children and families,” said Greg Garvey, New York executive director of the coalition.
Opponents — including Republican Assemblywoman Marjorie Byrnes of Livingston County — went to court to prevent the measure from being placed on the ballot.
Byrnes told the Post she was pleased with the judge’s decision to block the measure.
“While the state is controlled by one party, our constitution and our laws must be honored. I am pleased with Justice Doyle’s decision which upholds the plain meaning and integrity of the constitution of our state,” she said.
A recent poll found that a supermajority of American voters oppose abortions after the third month of pregnancy, but the New York ballot measure would go against that sentiment by approving unrestricted abortion.
New York state law currently guarantees a right to abortion up to 24 weeks — or six months — and also protects abortion until birth if the fetus is unviable or if the mother’s life is endangered by the pregnancy.
Shockingly, the law includes “mental health” as a reason for abortion up until birth.
Naturally, Democrats plan to appeal the judge’s ruling, so this measure might yet end up on the ballot.
But it all just goes to show how Democrats use abortion as a political wedge even when the “right” they claim to be worried about isn’t in danger in the least bit.
