WASHINGTON, D.C., March 17, 2021 (LifeSiteNews) – The U.S. House voted 222 to 204 today to revive the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA), via a Democrat measure “that seeks to remove an expired deadline for the ERA,” as the Wall Street Journal put it.
As written, the ERA would enshrine a so-called “right” to abortion on demand in the United States Constitution. On Monday, the Susan B. Anthony List announced that votes on this legislation will be scored and double-weighted in each member’s profile on its National Pro-life Scorecard.
In January 2020, the Justice Department Office of Legal Counsel published a decisive opinion stating that the 1972 ERA has expired and that new efforts to ratify it would be considered null and void. Just weeks ago, an Obama-appointed federal district judge concurred that recent attempts to ratify the ERA by Nevada (2017), Illinois (2018), and Virginia (2020) have no legal effect and do not count towards the required three-fourths states needed to ratify the constitutional amendment.
Congressman Chris Smith quotes @NARAL's own words making it clear the #ERA would “reinforce the constitutional right to abortion and require judges to strike down anti-abortion laws”
The so-called #EqualRightsAmendment isn't about equality. It's about abortion. pic.twitter.com/sGnblwZZ0N
— Susan B. Anthony List (@SBAList) March 16, 2021
SBA List President Marjorie Dannenfelser slammed the vote, saying:
The so-called “Equal Rights Amendment” may as well be called the Abortion Rights Act, as it would usher in extreme policy implications by enshrining a “right” to abortion in the U.S. Constitution alongside the foundational principles of our great nation. Abortion is the greatest violation of human rights in our day – the clear antithesis of equality. Its ratification would mean the indefinite blocking of state and federal policy to protect the rights of children in the womb.
The Biden-Harris White House has emboldened the Pelosi-Schumer Congress, and together they have dropped all pretenses of “unity.” As they dole out favor after favor to the abortion industry, SBA List and the pro-life movement remain vigilant against their radical pro-abortion agenda, which the vast majority of Americans reject.
— Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (@RepMTG) March 17, 2021
Reacting to the Senate Judiciary Committee considering the Equality Act today and the ERA moving forward, Students for Life Action President Kristan Hawkins commented:
Today, the Democrats in the House and Senate engage in a one-two punch against the Constitution and people of faith in the U.S. In the vote on the ERA, abortion activists seek to get abortion into the Constitution with a now vaguely worded call for protections based on “sex,” but in the “Equality Act” we learn that they define sex so broadly that women can be left behind. Further, the falsely named “Equality Act” makes people of faith unequal under the law, attacking the conscience rights protections of all who disagree with this radical restructuring of our society. Together, the ERA and the IN-Equality Act would allow radical activists to turn the concept of sex into silly putty, able to stretch and fit into anything courts might imagine and making believing Americans vulnerable to prosecution.