Virginia Senate Committee Passes ERA That Would Force Virginians to Pay for Abortions

Life News ^ | January 10, 2020 | Micaiah Bilger

[Da Coyote]

VA’s gonna need a lot of guillotines in the near future.

Hopefully, the revolutionary guard will sell tickets.

They’ll make millions.

[traderrob6]

“...the ERA is dead because the 1982 deadline set by Congress has passed”

Ya think???

[dsrtsage]

I am not paying for some slut to have indiscriminate sex with males that are not me

[Publius]

“We conclude that Congress had the constitutional authority to impose a deadline on the ratification of the ERA and, because that deadline has expired, the ERA Resolution is no longer pending before the States,” it stated.

The DOJ is correct and is simply enforcing a federal district court decision in NOW v. Idaho that declared the ratification window for the ERA expired in March 1979. Appeals to higher courts and the Supreme Court failed decades ago.

To revive the ERA, the Supreme Court would have to reverse its 1921 decision in Dillon v. Gloss and modify its 1939 decision in Coleman v. Miller. These two decisions form the backbone of the relationship between Congress and the amendatory process under Article V. Changing these decisions would throw the amendatory process into constitutional chaos, which is why the federal courts won't touch a Virginia-initiated suit with a 10-foot pole.

[ClearCase_guy]

What is the thinking here? Men don’t pay to terminate their own pregnancy? And therefore women shouldn’t pay to terminate theirs?

I don’t really see the Equal Right aspect.

[Dilbert San Diego]

They never consider that a few states rescinded their ratifications of the equal rights amendment during the original time period for ratifications.

To say that Virginia would be the 38th state to ratify, ignores both the deadline and the rescinded ratifications.

[BubbaBasher]

You can’t ratify something that is already null and void.

[Vaden]

I had a discussion about the ERA on this very site a while back. Someone here told me that the ERA was basically dead because of this deadline. I had never heard of any such statue of limitations on the amendments but I hoped he was right about it. Now it looks like the Justice Department has plainly stated it is a dead process. So glad to hear it.

I fully expect the left to resurrect it in the near future, however.

[Publius]

The ERA died in March 1979 due to the 7-year ratification provision tacked onto it by Congress in 1972. All the way back in 1921, in Dillon V. Gloss, the Supreme Court green-lighted Congress on its ability to attach ratification windows to amendment proposals.

As the ratification window was closing in 1979, Congress decided to extend the window to March 1982. Rather than use the amendatory process, which requires a two thirds vote of both Houses of Congress, it chose to use the legislative process, which requires only a majority vote of both Houses and signature by the president. Jimmy Carter doubted the constitutionality of this method, but he signed the extension anyway.

In NOW v. Idaho, the federal courts got involved and declared that Congress used the wrong method to extend the ratification window. What Congress did was unconstitutional. Congress should have resubmitted the amendment proposal to the states for ratification by starting the whole process over from scratch, with a two thirds vote of each House to send it to the states for ratification.

Appeals to higher courts failed. The Supreme Court refused to hear the case because by then even the 1982 window had expired. The lower court decision in NOW v. Idaho stands: the ERA died in March 1979. Ratifications by Illinois and Virginia don't count and are just virtue signaling.

[ActresponsiblyinVA]

Men need abortions at low cost, readily available and socially acceptable. It allows them to have unprotected sex without concern for romance, commitment or long term financial responsibility.

[Vaden]

Thanks for that educational response. I was not as informed about amendment procedures as I should be. I didn’t give the ERA amendment much thought because there had been almost no discussion of it in my lifetime. The extent of my knowledge about the ERA was that it was “frozen” because not enough states had ratified it. I actually did think that it could be still ratified if more states did so.

I’m so thankful I know better now.

[elcid1970]

Yeah, I mean, what’s this nonsense that “freedom of reproductive choice” somehow empowers women!?

It empowers us GUYS to have the milk without buying the cow, that’s what!

There’s a cabaret tune from 1906 called “I Could Love a Million Girls”. It goes with the ERA like june and moon.

[Amendment10]

Trying to save the long-expired ERA is just another ploy by lawless, post-17th Amendment ratification Democrats, who exploit low-information women by unthinkingly promoting the murder of unborn Democrats for the “instant gratification” of winning the next election, to stay in power imo.

"The ERA would amend the U.S. Constitution to guarantee equal rights for all born [??? emphasis added] citizens no matter what their sex is."

FR: Never Accept the Premise of Your Opponent’s Argument

“Born citizens” deliberately wrongly ignores male and female unborn persons imo.

Note that there is nothing stopping any state from defining personhood as beginning at conception imo, strengthening 14th Amendment basic right-to-life protections for unborn persons by doing so imo.

”14th Amendment, Section 1: All persons born or naturalized in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States ; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law [emphasis added]; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.”

The bottom line is that we don’t need constitutional equality protections for sex beyond 19th Amendment voting rights protections imo.

"19th Amendment:

The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex."

Corrections, insights welcome.

Remember in November!

MAGA! Now KAGA! (Keep America Great Always!)

[HamiltonJay]

Tax money wasted... leftists are great at this...

[AnotherUnixGeek]

Virginia voted in the Democrats, hope they’re enjoying the results. Today’s Democratic Party is something even people like George McGovern would consider to be crazy-left.

[traderrob6]

“MAGA! Now KAGA! (Keep America Great Always!)”

I sent the President a suggestion that they start using KAGA (Keep America Great Always) instead of just KAG (Keep America Great) You are the first person I’ve seen to use my suggestion. I hope it catches on because it retains the pizazz of MAGA.

[dljordan]

“I am not paying for some slut to have indiscriminate sex with males that are not me”

Laz? Is that you in disguise?

[SunkenCiv]

Justice Department Confirms ERA is Dead, Would Have Forced Americans to Fund Abortions
Life News | January 08, 2020 | Micaiah Bilger
Posted on 01/10/2020 11:02:09 AM PST by Morgana
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/3807161/posts

[Amendment10]

"I hope it catches on because it retains the pizazz of MAGA."

I agree. It rhymes too. =^)