Democrats reintroduce Equal Rights Amendment as millions of women march nationwide

Daily Kos Staff

Monday January 23, 2017 · 6:21 AM PST

2017/01/23 · 06:21

WASHINGTON, DC - JANUARY 21: Protesters flood Independence Avenue during the Women's March on Washington January 21, 2017 in Washington, DC. Large crowds are attending the anti-Trump rally a day after U.S. President Donald Trump was sworn in as the 45th U.S. president. (Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

The United States fell three states short of having an Equal Rights Amendment back in 1982, and, as Women’s Marches across the country drew millions of people, Senate Democrats came back for another try at it:

On Saturday, [Sen. Ben] Cardin joined Sen. Bob Menendez of New Jersey in reintroducing the amendment. Co-sponsoring were Sens. Cory Booker of New Jersey, Sherrod Brown of Ohio, Chris Coons of Delaware, Dianne Feinstein of California, Kirsten Gillibrand of New York and Ed Markey of Massachusetts in reintroducing the constitutional amendment first proposed in 1923.

The 28^th amendment would guarantee that “equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex.”

Democrats also introduced a bill that would extend the time for states to ratify the 1972 Equal Rights Amendment.

Saturday’s marches make clear that there’s a resurgence of political energy from women across the country, and, though you didn’t see many direct mentions of the ERA, the homemade signs marchers carried mentioned a huge range of issues where an ERA could help women, from sexual assault to equal pay to medical care. But given the Republicans in office today, the reintroduced ERA isn’t going to get the same chance in Congress that the original got back in 1972. These Republicans have all but dragged us back in time, and you get the feeling that if they could do that for real, they would.

Democrats reintroduce Equal Rights Amendment as millions of women march nationwide

Comments are closed on this story.