Era and Abortion

The hippie culture and the breakdown of morals in the 1960s had an effect in legalizing abortion. The original leaders of the women's rights movement were opposed to abortion. Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton, for example, were opposed to abortion. Alice Paul, a famous advocate of women's rights in the 1920s, called abortion "the ultimate exploitation of women." Democratic President Jimmy Carter was (and is) against it, but did nothing to reduce or stop it.

The culture of "me first" and "do whatever you want" in the 1960s led to laws legalizing abortion in California, New York, Oregon, Washington, Hawaii and Alaska.^[17] But there were signs that the tide was changing back to pro-life. In 1972, a referendum in Michigan to legalize abortion was soundly defeated by the margin of 61-39% by the voters.

A different type of "feminist" emerged in 1960s that opposed marriage and supported abortion. Betty Friedan, one of the leaders of this new feminist movement, published "The Feminine Mystique" in 1963. She argued that popular magazines brainwashed women into domesticity.

In 1966, Friedan founded the National Organization for Women (NOW), and demanded a new right to abortion and passage of the so-called "Equal Rights Amendment."

The Supreme Court stunned the country by declaring abortion to be a constitutional right on January 22, 1973, in the case of Roe v. Wade. Even the woman "Jane Roe" in that case, whose real name is Norma McCorvey, now says the ruling was wrong and abortion is a mistake. But the Court ruled that the U.S. Constitution provides for a right to abortion even though it is never mentioned anywhere in the original document, or any amendments, or any statements by those who drafted anything in the Constitution. The Supreme Court, by a 7-2 vote, ruled that abortion is in the "penumbra" (shadowy area) of the Bill of Rights. One might observe that the Supreme Court first turned its back on prayer to God in Engel v. Vitale in 1962, and then turned its back on the image of God by legalizing abortion in Roe v. Wade in 1973.^[18]

At the same time, this new breed of feminists was demanding passage of the so-called Equal Rights Amendment (ERA). It simply stated that:

Section 1. Equality of Rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or any state on account of sex.

Section 2. The Congress shall have the power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisions of this article.

The House of Representatives had passed this Amendment by a 354-24 margin. The Senate had passed it by a margin of 84-8. Both political parties (Republican and Democratic) favored it; all presidents until Ronald Reagan supported it; and the media strongly backed it. Ted Kennedy, a U.S. Senator who has been the most powerful Democrat for over 40 years, pushed for passage of ERA. Its ratification by 3/4ths of the states (38 states), as required to amend the Constitution, seemed inevitable.

The ERA would have required drafting women just like men; forcing taxpayer-funded abortion just like medical care for men; mandating same-sex marriage (ERA says no discrimination "on account of sex"); and ending special Social Security benefits enjoyed by widows. The courts could enforce ERA almost any way it liked due its open-ended and superficially appealing language. ERA would shift the entire field of family law and marriage from state and local levels to the federal government, and to the federal courts where judges are not elected and are appointed for life. ERA would prohibit single-sex programs and classes, particularly in public schools.

It was up to a handful of conservative women to stop it. They met in a hotel near Chicago O'Hare airport on July 7, 1972, to discuss political strategy, and one woman proposed naming their movement "Stop Taking our Privileges" or simply "STOP ERA." The name stuck.

The leader of the STOP ERA movement was Phyllis Schlafly, and for the next ten years she opposed both Republican and Democratic Presidents, nearly all of Congress, the entire media, and big corporate supporters of ERA (like the pornography industry, which saw ERA as helpful in defeating laws against pornography).

At the beginning, the momentum was too great to halt. By the middle of 1973, 30 states had ratified the so-called "Equal Rights Amendment." But then some states began to hold legislative hearings to consider the pros and cons of the amendment, and the tide began to change when the arguments were out in the open.

After 30 states passed it in 1972 and 1973, only 3 passed ERA in 1974. Just one passed it in 1975, none in 1976, and only one in 1977. That brought the total to 35, just three shy of the 38 needed for ratification. Meanwhile, the states of Idaho, Kentucky, Nebraska, Tennessee and South Dakota were persuaded they had made a mistake, and they passed laws nullifying or rescinding their acts. Congress had set a deadline of 1979 for ERA to pass, but then changed its own deadline and reset it for 1982. STOP ERA activists said this was as unfair as the losing side in a basketball game adding another period to the game clock so it would have an extra chance to catch up and win. The deadline finally expired in 1982, and ERA had failed to be ratified; the U.S. Supreme Court disposed of a legal case by saying the issue was now "moot" because the deadline passed.

The defeat of ERA helped elect a conservative president, Ronald Reagan. In the one and only debate between Ronald Reagan and Jimmy Carter, held less than two weeks before the election, Jimmy Carter raised his support of the ERA at the end of the debate in his final attempt to embarrass Ronald Reagan, who opposed it.^[19] Reagan then rebutted Carter's arguments and won the election in November 1980.