Independent Women’s Voice Lead Coalition Letter to Congress Opposes the Equal Rights Amendment

Independent Women's Voice today led a coalition of 22 freedom movement organizations and activists united against the Equal Rights Amendment. The coalition letter sent to members of Congress details how the broad-based lanuage of the ERA could actually eliminate rights that women presently have under state and federal law and ultimately hurt, not help, women and girls.

February 12, 2020
U.S. House of Representatives
Washington, DC 20515

Dear Members of Congress:

Did you know that the broad-based language of the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) could actually eliminate rights that women presently enjoy?

ERA proponents claim the amendment is necessary to guarantee equality of the sexes—but the Constitution of the United States already guarantees equality for all Americans. In America today, there are no rights that men enjoy that women do not.

Women’s rights to speak, worship freely, bear arms, be tried by a jury and more are protected. And unwarranted discrimination on the basis of sex is already barred by state and federal law.

The Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment already guarantees equality of the sexes. The ERA would go much further, requiring that the government treat men and women the same—regardless of actual differences recognized under current law upon which women presently rely.

The amendment will, therefore, replace equality under the law with interchangeability or sameness with men in all situations. While we are equal, we are not the same.

The ERA will bar laws from taking into account the biological differences between men and women, differences which, if ignored, can place women and girls in harm’s way. The ERA could mean the end of girl’s locker rooms and bathrooms in public schools, separate women’s prisons, and all-female sports teams on public university campuses. The amendment could also make unconstitutional hundreds of laws that currently distinguish between men and women, or bestow benefits to women, such as WIC, spousal Social Security, the Violence Against Women Act, and more.

Significantly, Congress lacks the authority to extend the deadline for ratification. The ERA’s promises of “equality” sounds nice, but eliminating all female-specific laws will harm women, not help them. Eradicating all women-only spaces will make girls more vulnerable to harassment and violence, not less.

Men and women are equal under the law, but we are still different, and in some situations, those differences matter!

For these reasons, we the undersigned oppose the Equal Rights Amendment.

Sincerely,

Tammy Bruce
President
Independent Women’s Voice

Jennifer C. Braceras
Director
Independent Women’s Law Center

Heather Higgins 
CEO
Independent Women’s Voice

Carrie L. Lukas 
Vice President 
Independent Women’s Voice 

Heather Mac Donald
Thomas W. Smith Fellow
Manhattan Institute

Jon Schweppe
Director of Policy and Government Affairs
American Principles Project