16 Mar The Un-Equal Rights Amendment Returns
Friends,
The late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg was known to rule in favor of abortion with such consistency that it could practically be taken as automatic. How remarkable, then, to discover that Ginsburg agreed with pro-life leadership in opposing the “Equal Rights Amendment.”
Pro-Life suffragist Alice Paul helped craft the original Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) in the 1920s, but how it was used in 1972 horrified her – it had functionally become, as Students for Life describes it, the “Everything Related to Abortion” amendment. Further, it actually would hurt laws which protect women from discrimination. The 1972 ERA had a 7-year ratification deadline which expired in 1979, but now it’s back via House Joint Resolutions 28 and 17. Deliberations on these Resolutions begin this week.
Abortion-promoters from groups like NARAL and Planned Parenthood say that the ERA could keep abortion legal even if Roe v. Wade is overturned, would invalidate hundreds of pro-life laws, and require taxpayer funding of abortion-on-demand. Worst of all, it would do so by being dropped into the U.S. Constitution, making it very difficult to oust. (Read citations here).
That’s bad enough, and is plenty to justify our opposition, but it’s not a complete list of the problems. The ERA would also damage hundreds of Pro-Woman laws which protect women’s interests. It would seriously harm:
- The Equal Pay Act of 1963
- The Civil Rights Act of 1964
- The Equal Employment Opportunity Act of 1972
- The Pregnancy Nondiscrimination Act of 1964
- 800 Federal Laws
If you think that harming all these laws doesn’t seem very Pro-Woman, Ginsburg would agree – that’s why she and other feminist leaders Eleanor Roosevelt and Dorothy Kenyon (who chaired the ACLU’s Committee on Women’s Rights) opposed the ERA. They referred to it as the “Unequal Rights Amendment.”
This is just the short version of the core dangers, and there are many other problems on top of these. You can learn more here, but I think this short list is damning enough on its own.
Please contact your US Congressional Representatives and urge them to oppose the Equal Rights Amendment.
We have two different prepared statements you can use (available at the link or the attached document). You can contact your representatives through this petition or by using the District Finder and selecting “Congressional” district.
Please also spread the word and help your friends and family know how the ERA will hurt us, and what they can do about it. The Equal Rights Amendment is bad no matter how you slice it – both pro-life and pro-choice people have historically opposed it for a variety of reasons.
The “Unequal Rights Amendment” should have died years ago. Let this be the year we bury it for good.