The chamber voted on a bipartisan resolution led by Sens. If it succeeds, New York will become the only state level ERA that guarantees prohibition of discrimination on the basis of pregnancy and pregnancy outcome and effectively secure reproductive rights in the state. The Senates latest effort to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment failed Thursday 100 years after it was first introduced to Congress. New York’s state ERA will be introduced as a referendum on the ballot in 2024. Maine, Minnesota and New York currently have pending state ERAs that have passed at least one house in their respective legislatures. Nevada Senator Pat Spearman co-sponsored the original bill for Nevada to ratify the federal ERA in 2017, a successful action that revitalized the national movement for equal rights and inspired Nevada and other states to adopt state level ERAs. It prohibits discrimination on the basis of “race, color, creed, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, age, disability, ancestry, or national origin.” Over 580,000 Nevadans voted in favor of the ballot initiative to amend the state constitution. In November 2022, Nevada adopted the nation’s most inclusive state ERA to date. Other states, such as Pennsylvania, apply an even higher, absolute standard, prohibiting almost all gender-based classifications. That means the government must not only have a compelling reason to discriminate, but the law must be narrowly tailored to achieve its goal – making it more difficult for lawmakers to pass laws that discriminate based on sex.

Most state courts interpreting state-level ERAs apply “strict scrutiny” to gender-based classifications in the law, a higher standard than currently applied at the federal level. States have interpreted these provisions in various ways. Twenty-three states have adopted state constitutions or constitutional amendments that prohibit the denial of equal rights under the state law based on sex. Advocates for constitutional gender equality have always had a parallel strategy to gain state constitutional equality, by organizing to amend state-level constitutions to guarantee protection against sex discrimination while simultaneously working to ratify the federal ERA.

Constitution, every state in the nation must abide by its own state constitution.

Era equal rights amendment