Controversial NY ballot measure Prop 1 passes, AP projects

A controversial New York ballot measure designed to enshrine abortion rights protections will pass, despite opposition from critics who viewed it as a lefty Trojan Horse, the Associated Press projected.Early results in New York City had the Proposition 1 ballot measure up 80% pro, to 20% against, city Board of Elections results showed shortly after polls closed Tuesday at 9 p.m.Statewide early results had Prop 1 up 64% to 26%, according to the state Board of Elections.The referendum also known as the Equal Rights Amendment was one of many recent Democrat-driven ballot measures across the US centered around abortion.Abortion itself wasn’t mentioned in the measure — instead, it would add language to the state’s constitution that would extend the Empire State’s anti-discrimination protections to everyone.Democrats also hoped the abortion-focused measure would drum up votes from women scared about their reproductive rights under a potential future Trump administration and Republican Congress — and, indeed, those fears did drive many New Yorkers to the polls.“The most important issue to me was abortion,” photographer Cordell Hurst, 52, told The Post outside an upstate polling site.Lauren Joseph, 45, a caretaker who voted in Bed-Stuy, said she voted “yes” to Prop 1.“I should have the right to abort my child if I choose to,” she said.But opponents argued the proposed amendment was, at best, sloppily written and could open the door to letting noncitizens vote and stripping parents of their rights over kids’ transgender surgeries.“No person shall be denied the equal protection of the laws of this state” and would extend all of those protections to everyone regardless of “race, color, ethnicity, national origin, age, disability, creed [or], religion, or sex, including sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, pregnancy, pregnancy outcomes, and reproductive healthcare and autonomy,” the text of the proposed amendment says.Constitut...