I want to alert everyone to the threat to Catholic values within the proposed Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) to our New York State Constitution. The ERA may appear on the ballot for a popular vote, as soon as November 5, 2024. This state constitutional amendment, among other things, provides minor children with the fundamental right to abortion, chemical and later-term, as well as the fundamental right to engage in transgender medical interventions.
The ERA empowers Courts to either uphold laws that ignore parental notice or consent or invalidate laws that require parental notice or consent for both of these life-ending or life-altering procedures. The ERA potentially erodes protections for churches and other religious institutions to teach beliefs that run contrary to these newly created fundamental rights. The so-called ERA reads as though it simply promotes “freedom and justice for all,” but it potentially harms children, families, and religious institutions; its impacts are far reaching.
NY statutes already protect against the horrors of discrimination as does our current NYS Constitution. The ERA goes further, by not only eroding parental authority and crystallizing “rights” for children that could be dangerous for them, but by threatening the ability of churches and other religious institutions to promote principles misaligned with radical reproductive and gender ideology. The Coalition to Protect Kids-NY is a ballot issue committee missioned to defeat passage of the ERA. The Coalition is registered with the NYS Board of Elections, where any expenses paid to promote the defeat of this ballot measure must be reported. Polls show that when people understand the effects of the ERA, support for the amendment plummets.
I urge everyone to do their part in enlightening your family and friends on this issue. This so-called “Equal Rights Amendment” is a hidden attack on family life. The New York State Catholic Conference and the Diocese of Rockville Centre oppose the ERA, and support the Coalition’s mission to defeat it.
Please go to PROTECTKIDSNY.COM. For an in-depth analysis of several impacts of NY’s ERA, please see New York States’s Equal Rights Amendment: A Revolutionary Camel, published by our friends at the Human Life Review, here: https://human life review.com/new-York-states-equal-rights -amendment-a-revolutionary-camel/ We can win, if we spread the message, with God’s help.
I would also urge you to join an organization called “The Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights.” The Catholic League’s stated purpose is to “defend the right of Catholics—lay and clergy alike—to participate in American public life without defamation or discrimination.” In essence, the Catholic League monitors the culture, acting as a watchdog agency and defender of the civil rights of all Catholics. Much of what they do is reported in their monthly journal. I have been a member since 1984. Their website is: www.catholicleague.org.
Remember: We can do something beautiful for God.