Pres. Biden, PUBLISH The ERA
Updated October 29, 2022
Pres. Biden is promising if people vote for Democrats, then Congress will “codify Roe.” But, HE MUST PUBLISH THE legally ratified EQUAL RIGHTS AMENDMENT first, because the ERA is the necessary constitutional textual BASIS, with its enabling clause (§ 2), for Congress to do that; otherwise, SCOTUS can strike that law down as unconstitutional!
The ERA protects all reproductive rights, and most LGBT rights, including marriage and legal sexual relationships, from all state and federal interference.
THE ERA IS THE MAGIC BULLET (even without Congress “codifying Roe”) to stop state and federal first trimester abortion bans, including criminal laws regarding abortions, and any laws against contraceptives!
Watergate Girl Jill Wine Banks said on her Sisters in Law podcast #98 at hour 1:08 that the President just has to order the Archivist to publish the ERA for it to be written as the 28th Amendment to the Constitution. (Read below why the deadline and any purported rescissions are unconstitutional and invalid).
Pres. Biden recently promised, and I’m asking he fulfill that promise now, and abide by his Constitutional Duty (Art. II, §3, the “Take Care” Clause) to direct the Archivist to follow 1 USC §106b and Publish the ERA in the Constitution as the 28th Amendment, to stop state and federal discrimination based on sex, which includes protecting reproductive rights. State Constitution ERAs have been used to protect reproductive rights! He tweeted, “I am committed to doing everything in my power, including taking strong action like the Executive Order I signed today, to safeguard access to abortion care.”
I realize that the Administration and the DNC have been using the Dobbs case to garner votes trying to protect the Democratic majority in Congress, and I too have that same goal.
Outrageously, on 9/28/22, Pres. Biden allowed HIS Dept. of Justice to ARGUE AGAINST PUBLISHING THE ERA in the DC Court of Appeals, blocking the ERA’s publication based on Trump’s & Bill Barr’s illegitimately concocted OLC Opinion! President Biden could have just told the Archivist to publish the ERA in the Constitution before then (as he is Constitutionally obligated to do), and then the case would have already been dismissed as moot! How can women’s rights & LGBT Rights advocates TRUST this Administration’s or other Democrats’ promises now? Without the ERA published, Congress cannot Constitutionally “codify Roe” without an immediate injunction and having it overturned at the earliest possible moment by the U.S. Supreme Court!
Pres. Biden’s ONLY OPTION TO MAKE PRO-CHOICE & MARRIAGE EQUALITY VOTERS come out on 11/8/22 to VOTE FOR DEMS is to
ACCEPT HIS OPPORTUNITY TO MAKE HIS MARK ON HISTORY BY PUBLISHING THE ERA NOW (before there is a decision in the DC Circuit Court of Appeals)! See list of what the ERA will do below.
Pres. Biden has racked up a list of remarkable wins, and his approval rating has been hovering around 40%, but THIS IS HIS ONLY CHANCE to garner enthusiasm and gratitude from all pro-choice and pro-LGBTQ people and make them realize that only Dems have their backs and will protect their rights to bodily autonomy and personal choice.
As you can see from Kansas, protecting Reproductive Rights is a massive turn-out machine. As you can see from the state ERA in Utah, the ERA protects Reproductive Rights.
As you can see from the horrendous repercussions from Dobbs, it has affected many more people than could be expected, both female and male. It has damaged businesses, put not only lives but medical professionals’ licenses, livelihoods and freedom from criminal liability at risk. It has affected the economies of numerous states. It has in short been an open door to the most horrific tendencies of the far right.
As Pres. Biden knows, our Democratic Republic is at risk of crumbling into the abyss, if not civil war and/or autocracy.
The most swift and comprehensive repair that Pres. Biden can make is to immediately tell the Archivist to publish the Equal Rights Amendment, the ERA.
The ERA will:
Make 167 million Women and Girls full and equal citizens for the first time
Protect Reproductive Rights in every state
Protect medical professionals’ ability to do their jobs without risk of lawsuits or arrest
Protect the lives and futures of the thousands of girls who become pregnant from incest, rape, or their own mistakes
Protect gay marriage
Protect the legality of gay sexual relationships
Protect the careers of gay teachers, librarians, coaches, etc.
Provide and protect equal pay for equal work
Prevent LGBT discrimination in schools, such as “don’t say gay” laws
Stop state governments from using their officials such as Child Protective Services from taking trans children from their parents
Protect women who need help getting pregnant to be able to use in vitro fertilization (which often requires removing and saving some of the multiple embryos)
Protect women with ectopic pregnancies from dying
Protect women who would otherwise be able to have a prophylactic abortion from having to reach the brink of death before a doctor can legally try to save them
It can be used to overturn Dobbs and restore Roe and privacy rights, when the next ReproRights case gets to SCOTUS, because the ERA is the textual basis that Alito said did not exist, and it is an alternative basis to protect ReproRights, apart from privacy, and the ERA was legally effective on 1/27/22, before Dobbs was decided
& numerous other benefits
Congress cannot fix these issues with laws, without the real risk of said laws being overturned with the next political cycle. Congress cannot “codify Roe” as Roe was a Supreme Court case using the right of Privacy, found by an earlier Supreme Court to be an unenumerated Constitutional Right.
Before Congress attempts to “Codify Roe,” as stated above, the ERA must be published in the Constitution so it is publicly recognized as the 28th Amendment, because it will enable and protect a law protecting abortion rights, in all states and in Congress, otherwise, there will be an immediate injunction and SCOTUS may strike it down as unconstitutional because, even though the ERA has been legally effective since 1/27/22, without publication, the ERA is still up for legal debate, even though it is legitimately legally effective!
Congress has to have a CONSTITUTIONAL BASIS for every law it makes. [Google how the “Commerce Clause” allowed Congress to stop racial discrimination!]. The ERA will protect abortion rights even if Congress does not codify Roe - even if the Republicans take over the House and/or the Senate. The Washington Post quoted, in the last paragraph, our Motion filed on behalf of the ERA-NC Alliance in Dobbs, asking for leave to file an Amicus Brief on the ERA and how it is the textual Constitutional Basis that Alito (& the majority) claimed did not exist in the Constitution to protect Roe from being overturned. Only Jackson Whole Women’s Health Organization had a right under the Supreme Court Rules to file a Motion asking to re-brief / submit additional authority on the ERA, yet, inexplicably, its attorneys refused, despite my pleading with them and their organization to do so. I also pleaded with Biden, his White House Counsel, VP’s top two attorneys, and five top women in Biden’s Administration, for Biden to PUBLISH THE ERA BEFORE THE DOBBS OPINION CAME DOWN. Yet Biden did nothing then, and later appointed the lead attorney for Jackson to the First Circuit Court of Appeals. (My letters are in earlier blogposts).
The ERA will protect contraception, along with other ReproRights, with its plain text (that the ultra conservative majority of the current Supreme Court demands). Contraception is not being protected by the GOP. When the House voted on Rep. Kathy Manning’s (D-NC) Contraception bill, ONLY 8 Republicans voted for the bill! Then, the Republicans in the Senate blocked it with the filibuster. One would think that most everyone, including Republicans, have used, or their partners have used, contraception — and logically, if they are against ABORTION, they should want contraception to be legal if not FREE, but NO.
So, there is a critical need for Pres Biden to instruct the Archivist to publish the ERA now!
Thankfully, the ERA is already in the Constitution legally, the former Archivist Ferriero already certified all 38 states’ individual ratifications, and it only needs to be physically published in the Constitution for everyone to be on notice that it is the 28th Amendment. Once it’s published, it must be respected by the Courts and the country unless and until a new amendment changes it (like with Prohibition).
An Amendment can only be changed by another Amendment.
Pres. Biden and the DNC can still explain to the people that they must vote for Democrats up and down the ballot to protect all the great legislation the Democrats have passed and even to stop Republicans from trying to re-write our Constitution, which they are threatening to do.
A growing number of groups recognize that IMMEDIATE ACTION MUST BE TAKEN TO SAFEGUARD REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS and to stop the draconian abortion bans & THE ERA ONLY TAKES ONE EASY ACT ON YOUR PART, MR PRESIDENT! You can fix this with one signature!
Equal Means Equal (national ERA advocates) “THE ERA IS FEDERAL ENFORCEABLE LAW”
National Organization for Women
The ERA Coalition: ✍🏻 Petition to demand Pres. Biden tell the Archivist to Publish the ERA
Please, please tell the Archivist to publish the ERA and then announce that it has been published on 8/26/22, the anniversary of the 19th Amendment being published, which will truly make it Women’s Equality Day.
