We are
exposing
the ERA!
the era is about abortion
The Equal Rights Amendment is not about Equal Rights—it is about ensuring abortion is legal in all nine months and taxpayer funded.
In 1982, the ERA fell three states short of ratification to be added as an amendment to the U.S. Constitution. However, abortion activists are now afraid that Roe v. Wade is going to fall, returning the decision of legal abortion back to the States. The National Organization for Women President, Toni Van Pelt, has already admitted, the ERA “is hugely important for reproductive rights, for birth control, for abortion…"
To “protect” abortion, the pro-abortion lobby has decided to try to ratify the ERA in the remaining three states and then hope Congress or the courts will nullify the original time expiration. Legislators in Nevada and Illinois have already voted to ratify, there is only one state left.
Petition Against
The Equal Rights Amendment
Dear Legislators:
In the name of helping women, a worthy goal, once again the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) is advancing where forces with interests that don’t involve women’s true needs will argue that ERA is a solution to a problem it doesn’t address. Let us be clear, laws protecting women’s interests will be undercut by the radical language of ERA that strips away from women their unique place in the law. Not only will real protections be overwritten by this heavy-handed measure, the most profound change will be creating a constitutional foothold for abortion.
A vote in favor of ratifying the ERA is a vote to advance the interests of the abortion industry, and it is a vote against women’s interests, weakening their hard-won rights.
This is not the Equal Rights Amendment, but rather the Everything Related to Abortion Act, as this measure will in fact do what Roe v. Wade and Doe v. Bolton do not -- create an actual place in our Constitution on which to hang the interest of the abortion industry.
Rather than empowering women, the radical ERA empowers courts, Congress and regulatory agencies among others to decide that a pet political project of theirs should have status and power of the law. Ironically, the arguments used for ERA in the 70s are moot today as laws requiring equal pay, forbidding discrimination by sex or barring entry into schools, the workplace or public life have long since been enacted. We are no longer in need of the women’s movement of the 1970s; times have changed.
The issue today is not the absence of laws protecting women; the issue is a radical agenda of empowering abortionists with new, constitutional cover.
Abortion advocates including those at NARAL, the ACLU and Planned Parenthood, have argued in state courts that state-ERA laws require abortion on demand with taxpayer funding. In the states of New Mexico and Connecticut, courts have agreed that abortion should be covered by taxpayers based on their reading of ERA language similar to what has been proposed. At EqualRightsAmendment.org a Who’s Who of abortion industry voices are all in unison about their desire for this to pass.
in Doe v. Maher, “the Connecticut Supreme Court wrote, ‘Since only women become pregnant, discrimination against pregnancy by not funding abortions…is sex-oriented discrimination…The Court concludes that the regulation that restricts the funding of abortions…violates Connecticut’s Equal Rights Amendment.’ In New Mexico Right to Choose, NARAL, et al v. Johnson, the New Mexico Supreme Court ordered the state to pay for Medicaid abortions, saying the state could not differentiate between abortions and medical procedures sought by men. ‘Equality of rights under law shall not be denied…on account of sex.’”
The abortion lobby consistently pushes a narrative that camouflages the many dangers of abortion. But pregnancy is not a disease cured by abortion, requiring that preborn life be ended.
The abortion industry, from day one, has used the courts to force an agenda that compassionate voters do not embrace. And even as legislators are asked to waste a valuable vote on ERA, this matter will have to go to the courts as the deadline for ratifying ERA passed decades ago. Abortion advocates say they can win in court, but why waste the time of Virginia legislators or Virginia taxpayer dollars to work on a measure destined for the costly and time-consuming environment of the courts?
We believe that missing all the deadlines and failing to follow the lawful constructs of the political process is reason enough to vote NO as the measure wastes valuable time, money and political will to advance the agenda of aging feminists. This dated agenda is not worth the time or effort required to pass it or defend it in court and does not represent the needs of today’s women.
We the undersigned urge you to vote NO on ERA and YES to matters that truly help empower women to realize their dreams and fulfill their potential, women born and preborn, who have moved past the dated agenda being pushed on the legislature today. You can do so much more for women by voting NO on ERA ratification, and voting YES on things that actually help women achieve in the current marketplace. The Everything Related to Abortion Act should remain an historical footnote in the story of efforts to advance women’s true needs in this country.
Regards,
Kristan Hawkins
President, Students for Life of America
Students for Life Action
Anne Schlafly Cori
Chairman, Eagle Forum
Eunie Smith
President, Eagle Forum
Jeanne F. Mancini
President, March For Life
Penny Nance
President, Concerned Women for America
Kenda Bartlett
Executive Director, Concerned Women for America
Connie Eller
Missouri Blacks for Life
Victoria Cobb
President, The Family Foundation
Cathy Ruse
Senior Fellow and Director of Human Dignity, Family Research Council
Evangelist Alveda C. King
Civil Rights for The Unborn
Marie Tasy
Executive Director, New Jersey Right to Life
Mary Kate Knorr
Executive Director, Illinois Right to Life
Meg Wittman
Executive Director, Right to Life of Greater Cincinnati
Georgette Forney
President, Anglicans for Life
Co-Founder, Silent No More Awareness Campaign
Molly White
Former Texas State Legislator
Advisory Committee Member - Operation Outcry
Founder and Director of Women For Life Internationa
Debbie Leininger
State Director, Concerned Women for America of Illinois
Penny Morell
State Director, Concerned Women for America of Maine
Bev Ehlen
State Director, Concerned Women for America of Missouri
Jill Noble
Area Director - Kansas City, Concerned Women for America of Missouri
Linda Thorson
State Director, Concerned Women for America North Dakota
Linda Schauer
State Director, Concerned Women for America of South Dakota
Ann Hettinger
State Director, Concerned Women for America of Texas
Beverly Roberts
Area Director – South Texas, Concerned Women for America of Texas
Toni DeLancey
State Director, Concerned Women for America of Virginia
Abby Johnson
CEO, And Then There Were None
Rebecca Hagelin
Secretary, Council for National Policy
Lauren Muzyka
Executive Director, Sidewalk Advocates For Life