The ERA-NC Alliance and its partners are outraged at the recently leaked draft opinion from the Supreme Court threatening to overturn Roe v. Wade. Justice Samuel Alito had the audacity to write that “no one, as far as we are aware, argues that the laws they enacted against abortion (early 19th century) …violated a fundamental right.” Women had no fundamental rights in the early 19th century or even a vote. Women have been denied full autonomy over their bodies, indeed their own lives, for centuries. It has only been in the last 50-plus years that women have been able to serve on juries, get credit, apply for and get most jobs, earn a living wage (although not equitable to their male counterparts’) and control when and if they have children. And that has been due, in part, to Roe v. Wade. 

Given that Roe v. Wade has always been the floor and not the ceiling for abortion access, removing this final federal protection of even minimal abortion access will be devastating for millions of people, not just women, in the U.S. 

As the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg said, "The argument … whether or not to bear a child ... This is something central to a woman's life, to her dignity. It is a decision she must make for herself. And when the government controls that decision for her, she is being treated as less than a full adult human responsible for her own choices.”

Our founding mothers of the Equal Rights Amendment knew 100 years ago that women must have full constitutional equality because of unequal and unjust laws that impact mothers and potential mothers.

Every abortion restriction chips away or outright eradicates that most fundamental right for women — whether or not to bear a child. In the first four months of 2022, there have been over 536 restrictions introduced in 42 states, and 28 restrictions passed at least one chamber in 11 states, according to the Guttmacher Institute (https://www.guttmacher.org).

Therefore, publication and enforcement of the Equal Rights Amendment is literally a matter of life and death for women in this country. Without the legal equality guaranteed by the 28th Amendment, hostile legislators will continue to not only overturn reproductive rights, but gut other laws that have brought women the current degree of equality we have.

The ERA-NC Alliance will continue to work with and support organizations whose goals are to ensure that women do not bear the burdens of laws and an activist judiciary that discriminates against them because of their gender.

We urge you to write to your U.S. Senators and House members and express your outrage. We urge you to consider your candidate’s stance on equality when you vote in the primaries and this fall.  THIS. IS. NOT. A. DRILL.  

Signed, 

ERA-NC Alliance

League of Women Voters of North Carolina

Business & Professional Women NC

WomenNC

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