BUFFALO, N.Y. -- Currently, Article 1 Section 11 of the New York state Constitution prohibits discrimination based on race, color, creed and religion.

Ballot Proposition 1 would amend the section to also include ethnicity, national origin, age, disability, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, pregnancy and pregnancy outcomes, as well as reproductive health care and autonomy.

"This is not about abortion," state Senate Minority Leader Rob Ortt said. "This is about something far more insidious and New Yorkers have to know that."

Western New York Republicans in the state Legislature are urging people to vote down Prop 1. They said the language would give transgender athletes the constitutional right to compete in women's sports and share their bathrooms and locker rooms.

"I've worked hard for years to get to the point where I'm at now in my sport and this amendment being passed will make that all irrelevant," student athlete Olivia Bell, who bowls at SUNY Erie, said.

GOP lawmakers said the amendment will open the door for much more, including taking away parental rights to be involved in their children's medical decisions like sex reassignment procedures, allowing non-citizens to vote, and even potentially legalizing pedophilia.

"When it says you cannot discriminate based on age, that sounds nice but it also means that a 35-year-old who is dating a 14-year-old is now going to have a constitutional right," state Sen. George Borrello, R-Sunset Bay, said.

State Sen. Liz Krueger, D-Manhattan, who helped write the proposed change, called the suggestion "crazy."

"Legislative bodies decide what are laws. We have all kinds of criminal laws against pedophilia," she said.

Krueger said her Republican colleagues are propagating conspiracy theories that are misleading or simply not true. For instance, she said the amendment says nothing about women's sports and is consistent with current state law and federal Title IX rules.

Krueger said opponents are fear-mongering to avoid the real reason they oppose Prop 1.

"People who are funding opposition to Prop 1 are a group of anti-abortion rights funders who know they can't go out and tell New Yorkers we don't think you should have the right to choose abortion. We don't think you should have the right to contraception or IVF," she said.

Ortt said there is no danger of New York rolling back its abortion protections but Krueger said that could change if the GOP gets power in state government.