Murkowski introduces bill to pass the Equal Rights Amendment

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(4-minute read) WILL BE CHAMPIONED BY ABORTION ADVOCATES AND TRANSGENDERED

U.S. Senators Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Ben Cardin, a Maryland Democrat, introduced of Senate Resolution 6, which would reopen consideration of the Equal Rights Amendment.

Thirty-seven states have already ratified the amendment, which was first proposed in 1972. Only one more state is needed.

Read Senator Murkowski’s and Senator Cardin’s joint op-ed in The Washington Post (Paywall) here.

The Cardin-Murkowski resolution would lift the ratification deadline to revive consideration of the ERA by the states.

The measure is exceedingly controversial and the timing is pointed: It will become an abortion issue and a major election issue going into the 2020 presidential election year, also the year that Sen. Dan Sullivan is up for re-election.

Critics say that proponents are falsely positing that America is a reflection of a “Handmaid’s Tale” dystopian world where women are nothing more than breeding machines.

They also point out that women who are pregnant do have limitations on where they should work: Toxic waste dumps, combat missions, and even piloting commercial jets can harm the baby. And there are reasons why women and men have their own professional wrestling circuits.

Other critics warn that the ERA is no longer about women at all, but is clearly moved into a new angle: It’s about abortion rights and extending special rights to LGBTQ — lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer.

In other words, critics warn, the ERA will be not interpreted on behalf of women, but on behalf of other Americans who want to ensure that the way they express themselves doesn’t interfere with jobs, housing, or use of bathrooms and locker rooms of another gender.

Murkowski and Cardin don’t recognize these issues — which will become litigated endlessly — in her public announcement.

“Nearly 100 years after women fought for and earned the right to vote, most Americans are shocked to realize that the U.S. Constitution does not already guarantee women the same rights and protections as men. It’s long past time for us to correct this injustice and recognize the equality of women under the law.,” said Senator Cardin. “What better way to set a positive tone for a new Congress than to take clear steps to fix a long-standing slight to America’s women. I’m proud to work with Senator Murkowski to move this essential legislation over the finish line.”

“In order for the ERA to be incorporated into the Constitution, we need 38 states to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment. As of now, we have 37. The bipartisan legislation I’m leading, alongside Senator Cardin, will resolve any ambiguity over whether states can make the ERA effective by ratifying. We cannot and must not put a time limit on the fight for women’s equality,” Senator Murkowski said.

The Equal Rights Amendment wording states:

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

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

Section 3.  This amendment shall take effect two years after the date of ratification.

“The Equal Rights Amendment is as important in the fight for women’s equality as it was on April 5, 1972, when Alaska ratified,” said Murkowski. “Women’s equality is fundamental to the American way of life and needs to be expressly recognized in the Constitution.”

ABORTION FRIENDS AND FOES WILL WEIGH IN

But the measure reflects a logic that could lead to a constitutional basis for abortion rights, and could result in overturning the federal partial birth abortion ban, third trimester abortions, and parental notification of minors seeking abortions.

It could interfere with religious beliefs of nurses, doctors and hospitals who do not facilitate abortions.

It could threaten tax exemptions of private religious schools that do not believe abortion is moral and that discourage it when teaching students.

The passage of the ERA could lead to Medicaid funding for abortions. Since men have procedures exclusive to them that are funded by Medicaid, including circumcision and prostatectomies, abortions would be subject to the same logic: They are unique to women and related to reproductive functions.

Pro-abortion groups have submitted legal briefs in support of the ERA for this reason, including Planned Parenthood, NARAL, the ACLU, the Center for Reproductive Law and Policy, and the NOW Legal Defense and Education Fund.

Congress granted an extension to ratification of the ERA back in 1982. The amendment failed because it did not receive enough state support during the time extension. Time simply ran out.

But Murkowski and Cardin think they have a workaround.

Their resolution would “immediately remove the ratification deadline and revive the consideration of the ERA by the states, finally guaranteeing full and equal protections to women in the Constitution. Article V of the Constitution contains no time limits for ratification of amendments, and the states finally ratified the Twenty-Seventh Amendment in 1992 regarding Congressional pay raises more than 200 years after Congress proposed it in 1789 as part of the original Bill of Rights.  The ERA time limit was contained in a joint resolution, not the actual text of the amendment, and Congress has already once voted to extend the ERA ratification deadline,” they wrote in a joint press release.

26 COMMENTS

  1. I remember in 1972 when the Equal Rights Amendment was first proposed that one of the arguments against the amendment was that, if passed, we would no longer have separate bathrooms for men and women. At that time I thought that argument was ridiculous that it would never go that far. But I was wrong. It has gone that far even without the amendment. Heaven help us if this thing passes!

  2. Maybe Murkowski would like to move to New York. Governor Coumo and Hillary Clinton are working hard to change the state consititution to include a clause for “abortion at will and make it a the abortion capital of the United States and possibly international.” Murkowski would be in seventh heaven.

  3. Lisa Murkowski’s world is in a universe far, far away. She has departed planet Alaska long, long ago. Her rocket ship is hitting warp speed. Now, we have to make sure she never returns to impose her other worldliness on us mere Alaskans. We just hope all the Murkowskis and the hapless House Husband is on board with her, never to return.

  4. Agreed and Bon Voyage! to a Closet Catholic, who has had every sacrament since birth and a Catholic Family with all persons in her family christened including her children. She doesn’t want the public to know she breaks her oaths and goes for the worst. Fickle and without a true character of trust. If you have a pile of money, throw it her way. She’ll do anything for money. She definitely has become an ugly person!!

  5. She has become totally beholden to those merchants of death at Planned Parent hood and become almost totally lost to us all…..when you watch her lately she looks old and as she talks she is often confused.

  6. Murkowski should just come right out and call herself a Democrat. Everyone knows she is so just maked it official. She’s just like her father, a deceitful snake. Wonder who’s payroll she’s on?

  7. Idaho, Kentucky, Nebraska, Tennessee and South Dakota have voted to rescind their ratification of the ERA. Nothing in the Constitution says a state can or can not rescind their ratification.

    • Ohio’s recission of its ratification of the 14th Am. was simply ignored. There is a good argument that the 14th was never properly ratified, but you’ll get held in contempt and fined if you try to raise the issue in the federal courts.

  8. OTOH, we could have a lot of fun with this. How? It mandates equal rights under the law based on sex. It would give fathers an equal voice in whether an abortion takes place. Men could use it to blow up the Family Courts system that discriminates against fathers. Men could use it in the liberal arts schools of colleges which are wholly held radical feminist subsidiaries, and demand equal representation in faculty and among the student population.

    Then there is the problem of the 5 states that rescinded their ratification of the ERA 1973 – 1979.

    There is a flying, fabulous clue bird flying around out there, but it hasn’t landed on Lisa’s shoulder for a long time. Cheers –

    • Well she did change it to “Independent” in 2010 for a bit but the GOP let her back in & never canceled her committee appointments in the Senate. Kinda seemed like the Alaskan GOP didn’t like having Conservatives elect Joe Miller & was more then happy to let Lisa back in right after the election. The Dem’s didn’t even run a real candidate that year for some reason…..hmmmmmmm almost seems like they got the person elected that they wanted. I wonder, some-days, if the Alaskan GOP takes Alaskan Conservatives seriously at all.

  9. No one in their right mind would abort a full term baby. If the mothers health was at stake it would be known way before a woman is ready to give birth. Yes I am old school and back when I was young we didn’t have the birth control that is so available today. To kill a 7 month or 8 or 9 month full term baby is murder plain and simple. Why if you kill a pregnant woman can you be charged with double homocide if it can be ok to kill that baby at sometime before birth.

  10. It’s time to give Lisa a one-way ticket out of Alaska and let her join an east coast state full of liberals

  11. Let’s see, there’s “Nepotism Lisa”-first in Senate history; then there’s “Sanctuary City Lisa” from her open borders agenda; followed by “I’ll accept the Primary Results Lisa” paid for by Seaalaska Corp. (apparently) with the “Corp” repaid in a congressional budget appropriation roughly equal to her “write-in” campaign cost; followed by the current Lisa where she thinks Senate Bill S109 was too much of a lift for her to vote to end Planned Parenthood abortion funding! WOW the Queen of Abortion Funding here in our very own State of Alaska!

  12. “And there are reasons why women and men have their own professional wrestling circuits.” My news feed occasionally gives me hits about “intergender wrestling” being the next big thing, but I haven’t ventured to click on any of it. It’s probably a safe bet that Ronda Rousey would wipe the floor with a bunch of dudes in real life, and that fans would buy her also doing so in the context of wrestling storylines. There’s a Canadian guy wrestling in Japan named Kenny Omega, touted as another next big thing should he sign with WWE or similar. In Japan, one of his claims to fame comes from “wrestling” a 9-year-old girl one time and a blow-up doll another time (yes, it’s a pretty bizarre sight). This sort of thing may be reality sooner than you think.

  13. I am writing about Lisa Murkowski and why she needs to be expelled from the Republican Party, relinquish, and reimburse the RNC, ARP for all financial support.

    Republicans stand for less government. Lisa Murkowski promotes single payer government socialist health care system. She has voted many times to support all aspects of Obama Care.

    Republicans stand for pro-life and against abortion. Lisa Murkowski voted, and campaigned for Planned Parenthood, promoting abortions as birth control, and is responsible for the deaths of 320,000 pregnancies in 2018. Some, perhaps our beautiful Alaskan Native babies.

    Republicans stand for the US Constitution and a conservative court. Lisa Murkowski voted for a liberal court, complicit with the Democratic “resistance” movement, voting against Justice Kavanagh.

    Republicans stand for Law and Order, secure borders, and legal immigration. Lisa Murkowski voted against US Citizens to protect illegal aliens, allowing open porous southern borders.

    Request Lisa Murkowski stop receiving RNC and ARP financial assistance. All monies received must be
    reimbursed due to her Liberal Democrat supportive votes in the Senate for several years.

    Request Lisa Murkowski must be removed from the RNC and ARP as soon as possible.

    I’ve never been one to openly voice my political opinion. Lisa Murkowski has, for several years, consistently and falsely misrepresented my vote.

  14. Information to evaluate about Lisa Murkowski……FEC Decision Clears Joe Miller’s 2016 Campaign of All Complaints; Shows Blatant Lies Used for Political Effect, Extreme Alaska Media Bias
    June 29, 2018/by Matt Johnson
    In a decisive rebuke to Alaska Republican Party Chairman Tuckerman Babcock and Senator Lisa Murkowski, the Federal Election Commission has dismissed the party’s 2016 complaints against Joe Miller. Clearly, the allegations were trumped-up with intent to further a smear campaign inaugurated against Miller in 2010 and damage his electoral prospects.
    There were several alleged violations in the ARP complaint, most dealing with Joe Miller’s website owned by Restoring Liberty LLC of which Miller is the sole proprietor.
    Alaska Republican Party Chairman Tuckerman Babcock falsely claimed in a sworn affidavit that Joe Miller, his campaign committee, his corporate entity, and/or corporate donors to his corporate entity:
    · Made illegal corporate contributions to the Miller campaign
    · Illegally accepted in-kind contributions from corporate sponsors
    · Illegally accepted other unlawful in-kind contributions
    · Accepted campaign resources from corporations without paying fair value
    · Transferred use of corporate social media accounts without paying fair value
    · Advertised for donations on his corporate website without paying fair value
    · Made numerous solicitations for campaign contributions without proper disclaimers
    · Utilized campaign material without proper disclaimers
    · Solicited donations via radio communications without proper disclaimers
    · Failed to properly disclose campaign receipts and expenditures
    · Fabricated certain in-kind donations
    None of which the Federal Election Commission found to be true.
    Given the nature of this corporate entity, a candidate’s ability to legally self-fund without limit, the lack of any substantiated violations of required reporting, and the press exemption in the law, the FEC finding determined: “ . . . the circumstances in this case support dismissal . . . [and] an enforcement action would not be an efficient use of the Commission’s resources.”
    Regarding the disclosure allegations, the finding was that “the information in the record suggests that the Committee sent a single email with an inadequate disclaimer, but the mistake was quickly identified and corrected. In addition, the email identified the Committee as the sender and included the Committee’s mailing address, thus recipients had some information as to who was responsible for it. There is no information indicating the Committee’s other communications violated the Commission’s disclaimer requirements.”
    FEC findings also addressed the allegation that Citizens for Joe Miller failed to report, or misreported contributions.
    “The reporting allegations appear to be unsupported. The Committee reported the in-kind contributions for the use of Miller’s vehicle and campaign headquarters, and although the Complaint alleges that some of those reported amounts were too high, the information does not indicate that those amounts were unreasonable. Additionally, there is no information showing that the Committee inflated the value of any in-kind contribution in order to reimburse Miller for more than its value.”
    It is clear from the FEC ruling that the Commission deemed them, at best, irrelevant and without merit.
    Nevertheless, in making their false charges, Tuckerman Babcock and Lisa Murkowski (on whose behalf these dirty tricks were executed) have demonstrated again a willingness to play fast and loose with the truth, as well as a blatant disregard for good faith and fair dealing. It appears their complaint was filed simply as a political weapon without regard for its veracity.
    Is this the way Alaska Republicans want to be represented by their leadership?
    Miller spokesman Randy DeSoto noted that “much like the liar fliers sent out with apparent laundered money from the Murkowski campaign, these charges were obviously an attempt to gain unfair advantage in a federal election and deflect attention from ARP’s dirty dealing. This is absolute vindication for Joe Miller.”
    Desoto is right. This federal decision once again underscores the mendacity of the Republican Establishment, and their willingness to lie, cheat and steal, if necessary, in order to prevail at the ballot box.
    Sadly, the mainstream media swallowed their lies as fact, gave them the headlines they were looking for, and confirmed that they are indeed #FakeNews.
    “It was clearly a calculated effort to further a false narrative hatched by Lisa Murkowski in 2010,” said Joe Miller. “The dishonesty of this cabal is notorious, and the mainstream media gladly rewards their treachery. No longer the guardian of free and fair elections, the fake news has become an agenda-driven corporatist enterprise that acts out much like a SuperPAC would, and always in the favor of entrenched power. Speaking truth to power is a thing of past with respect to the press, unless there is convergence with the progressive agenda.”
    A quick google search for “Federal Election Commission complaint, Alaska Republican Party” reveals the following headlines: “Alaska Republican Party Files Elections Complaint Against Joe Miller” (KTUU); “FEC Accepts Alaska GOP Complaint Against Joe Miller” (MustReadAlaska) [100% misleading]; “Alaska GOP Says Joe Miller Broke Campaign Finance Laws” (Alaska Dispatch News, aka http://www.adn.com); “Alaska GOP Accuses Joe Miller of Campaign Finance Violations” (Alaska Public Radio, aka http://www.alaskapublic.org); “Alaska Republican Party Claims Joe Miller Violated Election Laws” (KTVA); “Alaska GOP Chair Files Election Complaint Against Miller” (Fairbanks Daily News-Miner); “Alaska GOP Files Complaint Against Libertarian Joe Miller” (Roll Call).
    Not a single headline about a still-pending FEC complaint filed on the same day against Lisa Murkowski and her shill front group Alaska Republican Party. And remember, this search didn’t even include Joe Miller’s name.
    Any impartial observer would have to admit this is anything but fair coverage, and now it has also been revealed to be false and misleading.
    If your politicians lie to you with impunity (and most do these days), it is only because their enablers in the mainstream (read corporate) press empower them to do so. Stop believing the fake news. The future of our Republic depends on it.

    Maybe this helps make decisions today that should have been made some time ago.

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