Emphasizing that the Equal Rights Amendment is the only constitutional amendment that has not yet been approved, a nationwide movement urges President Joe Biden to make the bill part of the Constitution when he leaves office in January. Forty-six U.S. senators joined in the growing call.
Virginia-based publication Style Weekly, which reported on the letter on Tuesday, said the state’s two Democratic senators, Sen. Mark Warner and Tim Kaine joined nearly the entire Democratic caucus in sending a letter to Biden on November 22nd. Independent Sens. Angus King of Maine and Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont signed the letter, while Sen. Joe Manchin of Idaho and Virginia, who also caucuses with Democrats, said he would not do so. There wasn’t.
The ERA was passed by Congress in 1972 and quickly ratified by 35 states. It took nearly 50 years for the amendment to be ratified by three-quarters of U.S. state legislatures, and in 2020, Virginia became the 38th state to ratify it.
Even though the amendment meets ratification requirements, Biden still has not yet submitted a request to National Archives Administrator Colleen to publish it in the Federal Register, which would certify the ERA and formally enshrine it as part of the U.S. Constitution. He didn’t give any instructions to Shogun.
The amendment, if enacted, would guarantee legal equality between men and women, and reproductive rights advocates say it would strengthen anti-abortion legislation passed by Republican-led state legislatures across the country. It says it could be invoked by judges to overturn the Rights Act, which is an urgent matter. The move comes as President-elect Donald Trump approaches his second term in a Republican-controlled Congress.
“As you are well aware, after nearly 50 years under Roe’s protection, more than half of all Americans believe their rights are under attack and that they have access to abortion care and lifesaving services,” the senators wrote. Access to health care varies from state to state.” A federal solution is needed, and the ERA is the most powerful tool to ensure equality for all and protect these rights. This would establish the premise that sex-based discrimination in access to reproductive health care is unconstitutional. Abortion bans single out women with unfair treatment denials based on their gender and violate the constitutional right to gender equality. ”
The senators said state-level Equal Rights Amendments are already in place in Connecticut, New Mexico, Pennsylvania, Utah, and Nevada to prevent “legal violations of women’s reproductive freedom.” he pointed out.
The letter was reported ahead of a virtual town hall scheduled for Tuesday at 7pm ET, where Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand of New York is scheduled to speak about the ERA.
The town hall was organized by the Biden Publish the ERA Alliance, which is made up of 20 bipartisan advocacy groups including Doctors for America, Free Speech for the People, and the League of Women Voters. It was sponsored by
Organizers are planning rallies in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday and again next week.
Kati Hornung, co-founder of Vote Equality US and leader of the grassroots movement that pushed Virginia to ratify the ERA, told Style Weekly that Biden wants to “close the constitutional gender equality gap. He has been campaigning and his camp even requested that he speak at a VAratifyERA event.” In 2019. ”
“We’re running out of time to tell Colleen Shogan, the national archivist, to do her job,” she said. “170 million women and girls have waited 101 years for this amendment to be added. It leaves us all vulnerable at a time when threats to our LGBTQIA+ families and friends are growing. There is no excuse to keep it.”
