Six Reasons to Oppose the ERA

by Patrick Briney, Ph.D.. President, ARRA: The ERA anti-family activists are at it again. 4ERA, “a national, non-partisan, single-issue, grassroots organization,” declares its mission is to “build solidarity among Americans for ratifying and promulgating the Equal Rights Amendment to the US Constitution.” Arkansas is on its hit list. They sponsored a rally in the Capitol Rotunda January 24, 2007 and invited Governor Beebe & the other Constitutional officers to speak. They also lobbied legislators to support their agenda.

Why Arkansas? This national, anti-family group has targeted Arkansas as part of its three state strategy. To amend to the Constitution, thirty-eight states must ratify the ERA. At present, only thirty-five states have ratified ERA. The support of three states more is needed. The fifteen states that have not ratified ERA include Arkansas, Alabama, Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Nevada, North Carolina, South Carolina, Oklahoma, Utah, Virginia. In a set back for the ERA, five states (Nebraska, Tennessee, Idaho, Kentucky, and South Dakota) have since rescinded their ratifications thereby requiring ratification by eight more states.

ERA resolutions have been introduced into the legislatures of Arkansas, Arizona, Illinois, Florida, Missouri, and Virginia; and active ERA campaigns are being conducted in Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, Nevada, Oklahoma, and South Carolina. The Arkansas Senate barely rejected the ERA by only two votes in its 2006 session.

The text of the Equal Rights Amendment, as proposed in 1972 by the 92nd Congress, and as published in Volume 86, "United States Statutes At Large" (pages 1523–1524), reads as follows:
SECTION 1. Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex
SECTION 2. The Congress shall have the power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisions of this article
SECTION 3. This amendment shall take effect two years after the date of ratification

The language in this amendment is problematic for the following reasons - click to read. The fact that women today have successfully championed their rights in society and in the courts since 1789 is a testimony to the sufficiency of the Constitution to guarantee those rights. Attempts to approve the ERA, which only serves to confuse, take local and state control away from people, threaten religious and private institutions, and open the door for anti-family activists including homosexuals and abortionists, is ill advised. The ERA has been rejected since 1972 because it is a sloppy proposal. There is no mention of women in the amendment, and attempts to clarify its meaning have been futile. An amendment should be clear about its intent, and the ERA fails to do this.

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