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In a victory For abortion rights advocates, New Yorkers just voted to enshrine sweeping anti-discrimination protections in their state’s constitution, permanently isolating them. the rights of pregnant people, abortion seekers, and the LGBTQ community, among others, in the face of changing political winds.

Proposition 1 is one of the 10 ballot initiatives to protect the right to abortion which was put to voters on Tuesday. As Election Day approached, abortion rights supporters had won every ballot initiative before voters since the Supreme Court overturned. Roe v. Wade in June 2022.

With 33 percent of votes counted as of 9:50 p.m., Proposition 1 won with 72 percent of the vote Tuesday night, according to the Associated Press. But the ballot measure met and overcame stronger opposition than expected in the safe blue state. The opponents had organized a openly transphobic campaign to block it, spreading misleading claims on the proposal’s effects on a range of issues related to the Republican culture war, including health care for trans youth, women’s sports and non-citizen voting. In the final days of the race, conservative billionaire Richard Uihlein dropped out $6.5 million in efforts to defeat the measure.

From the start, proposition 1 was designed to protect the right to abortion. As Mother Jones reported last week:

that of New York Proposition 1 may not include the word “abortion”, but that would create unprecedented protections in the country for the rights of pregnant women.

The proposal is a broad version of Equal Rights Amendmentthe long-standing feminist effort to secure women’s rights in state and federal constitutions. Currently, New York’s constitution only prohibits government discrimination based on race and religion. The prop. 1 adds more protected categories to this list: disability, age, ethnicity, national origin, and sex, including sexual orientation, gender identity, and gender expression. These types of discrimination are already prohibited under state law, but by enshrining protections in the Constitution, Prop. 1 would make it harder for lawmakers to attack them in the future — for example, if New York politics keep moving to the right.

This is where abortion comes in: the amendment also prohibits discrimination based on “pregnancy status, pregnancy outcome, reproductive health care, and autonomy.” Not only does this definition go further than that of any other state, but it leaves little room for judges to interpret it in a way that could limit access to abortion, according to Katharine Bodde, of the New York Civil Liberties Union.

Yet while New York Democrats originally viewed Proposition 1 as a surefire way to increase voter turnout, their right-wing opponents have seized on transphobic messages to great effect, making this Blue State fight surprisingly close.

The Yes on Prop campaign. 1 declared victory on Twitter Tuesday evening. “While the world awaits the results of the national elections tonight,” the campaign job. “New York State has lived up to our motto of ‘ever upward’ and taken an extraordinary step forward in our enduring work to build liberty for all.