Hartzler Statement on the Equal Rights Amendment

Press Release

WASHINGTON, D.C.--Congresswoman Vicky Hartzler (MO-04) has issued a statement regarding the House's consideration of H.J. Res. 17, to remove the deadline for the ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment. In 1972, Congress set an original deadline of 1979 for a required three-fourths of states to ratify the amendment. The deadline expired without states' requisite approval more than four decades ago.

"For over a century, America has made great strides in securing equality for women. And for nearly the same amount of time, women's right advocates -- including First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt -- have repeatedly outlined the case against the failed Equal Rights Amendment. At the time, Roosevelt severely highlighted the protections which would be erased for women in the workplace.

Not only has the timeline for its ratification long expired (which the late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg acknowledged), but its possible adoption would produce devastating and harmful impacts towards women's rights -- such as allowing biological males who identify as female into battered women's shelters or to participate in women's sports. Even worse, this amendment also shamefully promotes avenues for taxpayer-funded abortion by entrenching its legality.

Let's be clear: the 14th and 19th Amendments already solidified equality for women in our nation. Conversely, the Equal Rights Amendment and its loose definitions would threaten women's privacy, safety, and equality by nullifying laws specifically designed to protect them.

It's time to move on, celebrating the rights women have achieved and stop using women to pass a radical agenda that promotes abortion and jeopardizes women's rights."

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