Quick Update:
Tuesday, The Family Foundation were all over the place, arguing mostly that the ERA is a stealth abortion bill, and similar. It will blow your mind, but you can read their “reasoning” here in a blog post from last year(the most recent thing I could find). In case you want a clear sense of how hard our opposition is fighting, scan these missives from The Eagle Forum, The National Right to Life Council, the Arkansas Republican Assembly’s 6 Arguments Against the ERA, and CNS News Op Ed on the ERA somehow magically overturning the Hyde Amendment.
Scroll down for sample emails/scripts,
and our priority contacts.
It’s just a good idea to know HOW they bent the facts in their zealous drive to control women’s lives and sexuality – and how very threatened they feel by the Equal Rights Amendment. As my father is wont to say, “These people are just smart enough to be dangerous.”
Click here to email Senators Directly. Senators are at the bottom of the page.
We particularly want to thank supporters, and encourage these five swing GOP votes. They’re the most important senators to contact.
Jill Vogel, (804) 698-7527 district27@senate.virginia.gov
Sample Emails
I have made 5 sample emails to counter the most common arguments against the ERA and ratification. Mix it up. Personalize. All the better.
To Thank senators who support ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment.
Subject: SJ 216, Thank you for standing for civil rights and equality
Dear Senator ____________,
My deep gratitude to you for your support of women and families in Virginia and the nation. SJ 216, ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment, has great and energetic opposition. These good people simply do not understand that the ERA only extends the 14th and other Amendments to fully include women, that it demands of us the same responsibilities toward our nation as are expected of men, and that it will result in equality of income and working conditions (as well as other rights and benefits) that will only further stabilize our families and communities, keeping more women and children out of poverty. That can only lead to better chances of health and happiness for our children and our men, as well as for the women.
Thank you for your support of women, our equality and our freedom. We will be cheering for you on Monday as you vote YES to the ERA, SJ 216.
With our gratitude for your service,
Your Name
Your Address
A general letter for senators who will swing for or oppose the ERA.
Subject: VOTE YES on SJ216
Dear Senator ______________,
Your Name
Your Address
To Rebut “It’s an abortion bill.”
Subject: VOTE YES on SJ 216, the ERA is a civil rights bill
Dear Senator _______,
The misconception that the Equal Rights Amendment is a stealth “abortion bill” is easily cleared up. The ERA is a matter of civil rights — basically, it adds women to the 14th Amendment, and assures us of the full protection of the Constitution — all the rights and responsibilities of citizenship. The ERA says nothing about abortion or any medical procedure. Roe v. Wade was decided as a matter of privacy (under the 4th Amendment).
Further, since the ERA makes education and employment more equal and secure, it will reduce the number abortions sought due to economic stress. This not only a well studied phenomenon, it’s just common sense. Most women who have abortions do so out of concern for their ability to support or help support their existing children.
Supporting all women, pregnant or not, is pro-family. Mothers can be home helping kids with homework and supervising their social development if they are not working over-time because 9-5 is not enough to make ends meet for many families in world of 30 years of flat average wages.
I hope you will vote YES for SJ 216, the resolution to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment, and support women — including women who are mothers and want to do the right thing by their families.
With my thanks for service to the Commonwealth,
Your Name
Your Address
To Rebut “The deadline is a done deal. Drop this.”
Subject: VOTE YES on SJ 216, the ERA is certainly not a dead issue
Dear Senator ___________,
The nation’s women are trapped in a catch-22. Some state representatives want Congress to signal the OKAY by lifting the sundown clause placed on the original ratification bill. As Congress chose to include this rare and strange provision, it has the power to remove it — and national efforts continue to encourage Congress to do so. But, members of both houses of Congress say they would be most motivated by a successful move to ratify in one or more of the states. So, here we sit.
Some believe that the 1982 case, NOW v Idaho means there is no chance of lifting of the sundown provision and women’s equality can never be realized by constitutional amendment. This is an understandable mistake.
Both the law journal of the College of William and Mary and Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg have made it quite clear that the NOW v Idaho decision leaves the fate the ERA clearly in the hands of state and federal legislatures. The decision said that the Supreme Court would not consider the matter further, but made no judgement on the permanence of the sundown provision. Indeed, the paper and the Court have both pointed out that the acceptance of the Madison Amendment after some 219 years of on-going ratification process clearly implies that Congressional deadlines need not be applied to amendments.
Dillon v Gloss and Coleman v Miller assert that Congress has the constitutional power under Article V of the Constitution to add, remove, extend, or change deadlines to constitutional amendments as long as they aren’t included in the actual text of the proposed amendment. The Congressional Research Service agrees.
This is the reason that Justice Ginsberg supports the effort to remove the deadline and the three-state strategy for ratification.
I ask you, Senator, to help make Virginia the leader in the civil rights and the security for all our communities by making women full participants in the rights and responsibilities of citizenship in our nation.
VOTE YES for SJ216 on Monday.
With my gratitude for your service,
Your Name
Your Address
To Rebut “Women will have to/don’t want to sign up for Selective Service.”
Subject: VOTE YES on SJ 216, the ERA requires equality, real equality of rights AND responsibilities
Dear Senator ______________,
It is a common objection to the Equal Rights Amendment that women want the rights but not the responsibilities of citizenship, and that we know this because women don’t want to sign up for the Selective Service –which is only required of men, but required in order to quality for college loans and other government services, a kind of civil coercion.
I offer you two thoughts. One: women are in combat and are now officially allowed to serve the front lines. The “frontless” wars in Afghanistan and Iraq showed that women not only could, but now must serve in combat if they join in military service. Two: The ERA mandates equality on the basis of sex. This means that with the ERA in place, our nation would have a choice — either make women sign up for the Selective Service, or admit that we will never hold another military draft and eliminate the demand on men thanks to the ERA.
Women have never been against the Selective Service and the draft only on our own behalf. To think this is to think the worst of women. We love the men and boys in our families as fiercely as we love this country — we want the lives of neither wasted in war if it can be avoided at all.
Please, on Monday, vote YES for the ERA — SJ 216 — and give women the same responsibility for this great nation that we expect of our men.
With my thanks for your service,
Your Name
Your Address
Tagged: #DemandERA, #VAyesERA, Equal Rights Amendment, ERAMonday, General Assembly
Paradise Kendra
Dr. PoMoRed
Virginia ERA Network 
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