On October 12, 1971, the United States House of Representatives passed the Equal Rights Amendment, a simply-worded amendment to the Constitution that proponents promised would “put women in the Constitution” and would guarantee women’s equality. As Eagle Forum’s beloved founder Phyllis Schlafly asked in her newsletter that would become the death knell of ERA, “What’s Wrong with Equal Rights for Women?”
Phyllis bothered to read the ERA and point out that not only did it not “put women in the Constitution,” (as ERA mentions only the word “sex,” not “women,”) but, Phyllis noted that the ERA was likely to harm women, particularly society’s most vulnerable women. Phyllis rallied thousands of women across the country who wanted to protect their biological rights to educate others, including lawmakers, on the consequences of eliminating distinctions between the sexes. This battle gave birth to Eagle Forum, and astoundingly we are still fighting the ERA today. Even though the ratification deadline is long-past, House Democrats have brought up the issue every year in Congress usually with a piece of legislation in-hand that erases the original deadline to allow the states who recently passed the ERA to be part of the count. The most recent fan-fare was a House Oversight and Reform Committee hearing to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the ERA’s House passage.
The hearing was clearly stacked in the Democrats’ favor. Not only were Republicans given short notice, but they also granted themselves six Democrat panelists. The Democrat witnesses were ERA Coalition President Carol Jenkins, Virginia State Senator Jennifer McClellan, Actor Alyssa Milano, Georgetown University Professor Victoria Nourse, TransLatin@ Coalition President Bamby Salcedo, and Feminist Majority Foundation President Eleanor Smeal. Their titles alone are indicative of where the feminists are pushing their agenda: higher education, politics, transgenderism, and Hollywood.
Only one slot was given to a Republican witness. This has been a consistent problem since House Democrats took the majority. Two years ago, during a subcommittee hearing on the same topic, Democrats awarded themselves, three witnesses and one lousy Republican witness. That Republican witness expressed her support for the ERA at the end. Fortunately, Republicans were wiser and bolder this time. They chose Independent Women’s Forum’s Senior Policy Analyst Inez Stepman who has been an outspoken opponent to every facet of the ERA and has been a guest on Engage with Eagle Forum. Her testimony and responses to questions were so rich in logic, data, and legal knowledge, it cut down every word from the left.
Stepman discussed many problems of the ERA from sex-neutral private spaces and facilities, men in women’s sports, taxpayer-funded abortion, and others. In fact, we are already seeing that happen from lawsuits based on state-passed ERAs. When Representative James Comer (R-KY) asked Stepman about the legality of the ERA, she responded with:
Fundamentally, we haven’t had a conversation about the consequences that we’re talking about today with the ERA because we have had this short-circuit three-state ratification procedure. 62% of our electorate was either not of age to vote or not even born, for example, myself, the last time we had this conversation about the consequences. That bipartisan consensus about the ERA and its consequences dissolved precisely because we had a vociferous public debate in which lots of different states and all of our electorate… and American women who make up the majority of voters were able to weigh in on whether or not they want to be treated like men in every single circumstance.
Unfortunately, only eight out of the nineteen Republican committee members spoke at the hearing. However, the Republican members who attended the hearing pulled no punches. Not only did they hit on every problem of the ERA, but they also pointed out the hypocrisy of the left’s rhetoric and inactivity on actual issues happening right now. Special kudos to Rep. Ralph Norman (R-SC) who highlighted the painful reality that those witnesses purporting to be fighting for women’s rights were trashing the one country in the world that does the most to fight true injustices faced by women throughout the world. Norman decided to go off-script and highlight the negativity that each of the six Democrat panelists expressed about our nation and questioned why anyone would want to come here. He said:
I wonder what your testimony would be on the women who are being raped that are coming into this country. I wonder what your testimony would be with the Uyghurs in China who wanted freedom but are now incarcerated. I wonder what your testimony would be with Kate Steinle who was gunned down by illegals. And I wonder what your testimony would be over the 22 cities that were destroyed, whose businesses were destroyed.
Then, he asked Alyssa Milano to name three things she loved about America. She fumbled through her answer but eventually came up with three topics, one being the right to abortion that she mistakenly claimed was protected by the Constitution. This demonstration showed that the left’s talking points are self-serving and destructive of American freedoms.
Rep. Fred Keller (R-PA) summed up this conversation in light of the state of our nation perfectly. He said:
The ratification deadline for this measure ended over four decades ago. It seems like we’re back in 1979 under the Carter administration when the ratification deadline for the ERA passed the first time. We were dealing with the same rising gas prices, rising energy prices, rising inflation, and even Americans were being held, hostage. If this is the Democrats’ definition of progress, Americans have clearly stated they want none of it.
This hearing was just another way that Democrats are trying to strip away women’s rights and create the delusion that the ERA still has a chance. Eagle Forum applauds the Republican members who used their time to shed light on the ERA as well as Inez Stepman who wasn’t intimidated to be the lone panelist fighting for women’s rights.