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Press Release
ERA Amendment Will
Strike Abortion Laws Nationwide.
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State
ERA Laws Have Been Used To Force State Funding of
Abortion.
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Supporters Have Urged Courts to Strike Conscience,
Parental Notice Laws & More With ERA.
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Would
Increase Abortion, Harm Health Care System, Increase
Exploitation of Teenage Girls.
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Bill
Is Futile Because US Supreme Court Has Declared ERA
Dead.
FOR
RELEASE March 26, 2009
The following statement can
be attributed to Nevada LIFE President Don Nelson
Thirty years after the defeat of the Equal Rights
Amendment (ERA), and rejection by Nevadans, a bill to
ratify the ERA has been reintroduced in the Nevada
Assembly. It would “ratify a proposed amendment to the
Constitution of the United States providing 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."
Nevada LIFE opposes ERA because it would be used to
nullify abortion laws in all 50 states just as state ERA
laws in New Mexico and Connecticut have been used to force
taxpayer funding of abortion. Abortion also advocates urge
using ERA and state ERAs to strike parental and conscience
protections.
Abortion advocates have been able to strike abortion laws
on grounds that they discriminate. They argue that
abortion is a medical procedure sought only by women.
Laws that treat abortion differently from other medical
procedures are a form of sex discrimination. For example,
if states pay for treating an enlarged prostate, they must
pay for an abortion or they are guilty of discrimination.
The consequences of ERA
will be devastating. The abortion rate and numbers of
abortion will increase dramatically because ERA will be
used to overturn abortion reducing legislation. NARAL
claims that the Hyde Amendment alone, which bans tax payer
funding of abortion, has kept half of the women who would
have aborted from aborting. Planned Parenthood says 18-35
percent. Striking that one provision would reverse the 20
year trend of declining abortions. Teen abortions and
exploitation of teen and pre-teen girls would increase.
Parental involvement laws are largely responsible for the
50 percent reduction in teen abortion. These laws are
necessary protections against statutory rapists who
routinely use abortion clinics to cover their crimes. If
conscience protections are removed, it will have a
destructive impact on the medical profession. Doctors
will leave the profession and other bright young people
will decide not to go into medicine. It’s likely that the
much of the Catholic health care system will be shut
down. The consequences of this legislation would be
staggering.
The
ERA bill is futile because ERA is dead. Between 1972 and
1983 there was a drive to amend the United States
Constitution with ERA. The legislation’s seven year time
frame expired 30 years ago. Only 35 of the necessary 38
states to ratify the amendment did so. Five rescinded
earlier ratifications.
ERA
advocates think if they can get three more states to
ratify ERA (the “3 state strategy”), ERA will become part
of the Constitution of the United States. Supporters
argue that the 27th amendment was ratified after 200 years
in the early 1990's. But the 27th amendment had no time
limit. ERA had a seven year limit. Supporters ignore
ERA’s seven year limit and court decisions declaring ERA
dead. This scheme would force the five states revoking
their ratification to make their prior ratification stand.
Pro-life groups have
repeatedly said they would not oppose ERA if it contained
abortion neutral language to ensure ERA does not "grant,
secure or deny any right relating to abortion or the
funding thereof." Refusal to add this and use of state
ERAs to defeat abortion laws, undermines protests that ERA
does not involve abortion. Americans support equal rights,
but not in the guise of abortion.
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