The Catholic Church can’t seem to catch a break with the Democrats these days. First Vice President Harris snubs the Al Smith dinner. Now Governor Hochul is abjuring New Yorkers not to let “darkness” and “evil” win in the fight over Proposition 1. She’s referring to the opposition of the Catholic Church to a measure that, the Post reports, it fears is “aimed at enshrining” in the state Constitution “a woman’s right to an abortion.” 

The proposition Mrs. Hochul is calumniating over is on the ballot Tuesday for the consideration of Empire State voters. Its backers call it the “Equal Rights Amendment,” as its language promises to “protect against unequal treatment.” That’s a right already vouchsafed to New Yorkers by the Fourteenth Amendment of  America’s Constitution, and Article 11 of the State’s parchment. That’s but one reason to look warily at this proposed measure.

Proposition 1 spells out that qualities such as “ethnicity, national origin, age, disability, and sex, including sexual orientation, gender identity and pregnancy” would be no grounds for the aforementioned “unequal treatment.” Nor, the proposition states, would “unequal treatment” be permitted “based on reproductive healthcare and autonomy.” It might sound harmless enough at first glance, which is all it will get from most voters.

One Critic of the proposed amendment, Bobbie Anne Cox, a Westchester-based lawyer, calls it a “Trojan horse of the worst kind.” She’s a Democrat and a Catholic working with the Vote No on Prop One Committee, the Post reports. Ms. Cox contends that the amendment is “filled with woke policies that will give illegal aliens the same rights as citizens,” and “allow boys to compete in girls’ sports.” 

Plus, too, the Post reports, critics of the measure also warn that the breadth of its language on matters pertaining to gender and sex could “allow youngsters to get sexual reassignment surgery without parental consent.” The measure raises concerns, too, that it could open the door for “non-citizens to vote in elections.” Timothy Cardinal Dolan and the New York archdiocese oppose Proposition 1, calling it a “wolf in sheep’s clothing.”

In short, there are plenty of reservations to express about Proposition 1 without placing oneself on the wrong side of any moral ledger. That hasn’t stopped Mrs. Hochul from claiming the high ground, though. “They’re trying to scare us and say all these things are going to happen if you pass this,” she fretted on Saturday. “Don’t let them win,” the governor growled. “Do not let darkness win over light. Don’t let bad, evil, win over good.”

That kind of talk crosses the line between political advocacy and demagoguery. Ms. Cox calls Mrs. Hochul’s remarks not only “incendiary and hateful, but also deceptive and wrong.” Ms. Cox was particularly distressed, she said, by the governor’s “attack on the Catholic church, its leadership in New York, and the nearly 6,500,000 New Yorkers who identify as Catholic.” Who can disagree with that appraisal?

It’s not our intention here to suggest that there aren’t serious disagreements on this head. We understand — and respect — the depth of feeling on these issues. It’s shocking, though, to hear a governor of New York talk the way Mrs. Hochul has been doing. Recall Governor Andrew Cuomo’s claim that “conservatives who are right to life” have “no place in the state of New York.” What kind of talk is that?

The hostility toward Catholics is of a piece with a spreading hostility toward other faiths. New York is still pressing its campaign to penalize yeshivas educating fervently Orthodox Jewish students. That effort singles out such yeshivas in an ideological religious discrimination. The dispute is pending at the state’s highest court. Mrs. Hochul’s overheated reminds of the merit in leaving the biggest moral and ethical questions to a higher authority.