URGENT ACTION - Arkansas - HJR1014 - Equal Rights Amendment (ERA)

HJR1014 is on the agenda again in the House State Agencies Committee for tomorrow morning. Please contact your representative about this bill. Here is a recap of a former Secure Arkansas email dated March 2, 2009, regarding this bill:

Phyllis Schlafly traveled to Arkansas and joined in the 2007 debate at the Capitol here. See: Phyllis Schlafly Speaks Out For Women & Opposes ERA Amendment

This issue has been around since 1972 and was ratified by 35 states, but there are good reasons why it has not become law in all this time. Here are some reasons no state has ratified the ERA since 1977:

• ERA would require taxpayer funding of abortions. Several states have ruled the ERA requires taxpayer funding of Medicaid abortions. For example, New Mexico’s state supreme court ruled that its State ERA requires taxpayer funding of abortions because, since only women undergo abortions, the denial of taxpayer funding is “sex discrimination.” (N.M. Right to Choose/NARAL v. Johnson, Nov. 25, 1998.) We must NOT give courts this power.

• ERA would allow the courts to legalize same-sex marriages. Courts in four states have ruled that ERA’s ban on “sex” discrimination requires marriage licenses to be given to same-sex couples. In Maryland and Washington, those decisions were overturned by a one-vote margin in higher courts, but ERA gives the power to judges to rule either way. We must NOT give supremacist judges this power!

• ERA would deprive wives and widows of their “dependent wife” benefits in Social Security. Ruth Bader Ginsburg explained this effect of ERA in her book, “Sex Bias in the U.S. Code,” and she reasserted this in her opinion in the Supreme Court Partial Birth Abortion case in 2007.

• ERA would require young women to register for military service (even though we don’t have a draft). If they fail to register, they would immediately lose their federal college grants and loans, and they would never be able to get a federal job.

Action: Please view the video and then phone your Arkansas State Senator at (501) 682-2902 and Representative at (501) 682-6211 tell them to vote NO on ERA. See Also: ERA Again - Six Reasons to Oppose the ERA

---

Tags: Arkansas, ARRA, Eagle Forum, Equal Right Amendment, ERA, Phyllis Schlafly, testimony, Women To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!