Your New York boss can't punish you for your reproductive health choices

If you work in New York, your employer can’t fire you, demote you, or otherwise punish you because of a reproductive health decision, including one your dependent makes. Your employer also can’t access personal information about those decisions without your informed written consent or make you sign away your right to make them.

You don’t have to apply. If your employer breaks the law, you can sue for back pay, lost benefits, reinstatement, and attorney’s fees. A court may also add liquidated damages equal to those losses unless the employer shows a good-faith basis for thinking it complied. Retaliation for complaining or suing is illegal. Employers with handbooks must include a notice of these rights.

Assembly Member Ellen Jaffee carried versions from 2014 through 2019. The Assembly passed one every year, but earlier versions stalled in the Senate. Sen. Jen Metzger carried the 2019 Senate bill. Both chambers passed it January 22—56–6 in the Senate and 105–33 in the Assembly. Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed it November 8. The main protections took effect immediately.

Two anti-abortion organizations and a church sued. In January 2025, a federal appeals court rejected their free-speech and free-exercise claims and restored the handbook notice, while reviving a narrower expressive-association claim. The remaining claim was dismissed by stipulation on April 2, 2025, closing the case.