CNA Staff, Jan 17, 2025 / 11:30 am (CNA).
President Joe Biden on Friday proclaimed that the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) — a long-debated constitutional measure that some critics have argued could legalize abortion nationwide — is “the law of the land,” a declaration that appeared to carry no legal weight but which could set off a protracted political and legal fight for the incoming Trump administration.
The amendment holds that “equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of sex.” It was first proposed over a century ago in 1923. It has been championed by advocates in the decades since and has been ratified by numerous states.
Virginia became the 38th state to ratify the amendment in 2020, nominally clearing the necessary threshold of three-fourths of the states needed to amend the U.S. Constitution.
But U.S. Archivist Colleen Shogan — who is officially charged with entering an amendment into the Constitution upon its ratification — has said the amendment failed to pass a congressional deadline before ratification, meaning the archivist “cannot legally publish the Equal Rights Amendment” and that it “cannot be certified as part of the Constitution.” Shogun was appointed to the role by Biden in 2022 and confirmed in 2023.
In his statement on Friday, Biden made no mention of the archivist’s earlier refusal to publish the amendment.
“The American Bar Association (ABA) has recognized that the Equal Rights Amendment has cleared all necessary hurdles to be formally added to the Constitution as the 28th Amendment,” the president said in his statement.
“I agree with the ABA and with leading legal constitutional scholars that the Equal Rights Amendment has become part of our Constitution.”
“In keeping with my oath and duty to Constitution and country, I affirm what I believe and what three-fourths of the states have ratified: The 28th Amendment is the law of the land, guaranteeing all Americans equal rights and protections under the law regardless of their sex,” Biden added.
It is unclear what, if any, legal weight the declaration carries.
In addition to the assertions of the archivist, in a 2020 opinion Steven Engel — at the time the U.S. assistant attorney general for the Office of Legal Counsel — said the ERA resolution “has expired and is no longer pending before the states.”
Pro-abortion advocates have argued that the ERA could be used as a means of forcing states to legalize abortion.
Smith College Professor Carrie Baker wrote in 2022 that the ERA could serve as “an avenue for shoring up women’s rights, especially reproductive rights,” specifically that it “could provide a new basis for abortion rights in the United States.”
Heritage Foundation legal fellow Thomas Jipping, meanwhile, in 2023 argued that the “ERA-abortion connection” has been established for decades and that “the groundwork has already been laid” to use it as a pro-abortion measure.
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Just a thought here.
The ERA is still around and being championed by various groups, and even though it has never been ratified and become part of the U.S. Constitution, it is still embraced by many women. It seems that even an un-ratified Constitutional Amendment has the power to influence and persuade.
So…would it be prudent to draft an “Unborn Human Being Rights Amendment” that would recognize (based on medical science) the humanity of the embryo/fetus/mature fetus throughout pregnancy and protect the unborn human being from untimely death via surgical/medicinal/other abortion procedures performed by either the woman carrying the baby (via an “abortifacient drug or procedure) or by abortionists who operate from an abortion clinic?
At the very least, could an Amendment be drafted stating “A pregnant woman has the right to know, through the display of photos and/or models, and through the written and/or spoken word, about fetal development from fertilization through the entire pregnancy, and must be informed that, based on the established sciences of human genetics and human development, the embryo/fetus/mature fetus is a human being.”
I’m sure that there is a best way to word these amendments, but the point is, women are being deceived by the abortion industry and by various feminist groups, and for that matter, by the Democratic Party. It seems that the “science” of human development is being discarded in order to justify the killing of these unborn humans. And many scientists and medical professionals who might object are wary of the repercussions of their actions; i.e. they could lose their positions and be blacklisted from future employment in their field.
So why not take a cue from the ERA, which, even though un-ratified (and unlikely to be ratified), continues to influence women, and draft an amendment that, even if it doesn’t get ratified for decades, perhaps never, will still be able to influence women who don’t necessarily attend church or have any religious belief and truly have no idea (or deny the facts) about human development and the truth that abortion kills a human being?
“Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of sex”, a 1923 amendment that was intended to protect women’s rights. And justifiably must remain legally narrowed to women’s rights not homosexuals. Neither can it be applied as a legal basis for abortion rights as a women’s right because abortion, because the killing of a human life is not a Constitutional right, nor a justice right.
What Biden might think about anything falls into the same category as what Pontiff Francis thinks…nobody’s interested.