‘IT’S BASICFAIRNESS’Sen. Ben Cardin has spent decades advocating forthe Equal Rights AmendmentBy Jeff BarkerIt’s hard to fathom, says U.S. Sen. Ben Cardin,why the Equal Rights Amendment — whichCongress sent to the states for ratificationwhen he was a young state delegate 51 yearsago — is still not part of the Constitution.“It’s basic fairness,” the Maryland Democrat saidof the ERA, which was overwhelmingly passed bythe Senate in 1972, beginning a winding path thatsupporters believe will eventually make it the 28thAmendment.Cardin was 28 then. He turned 80 on Oct. 5, but afew things have not changed. He remains passionate about the ERA and still believes it will be ratified, even if he sometimes appears incredulous thatit has taken this long.The ERA would enshrine women’s equality inthe Constitution by mandating that “equality ofrights under the law shall not be denied or abridgedby the United States or by any state on account ofsex.”With Cardin as a supporter, Maryland wasamong the first states to ratify the ERA in 1972.Thirty-five states — three fewer than needed —approved it by the deadline, which was originally1979 but extended to 1982.“I knew we had a long way to go in 1979,” Cardin42 | 2023 | WOMEN TO WATCHsaid. “But I am proud of the progress we’ve made.”He noted that women constitute 28% of themembers of the House and Senate. While far lessthan their percentage of the general population (alittle more than 50%), that is a record high.Three additional states — Nevada, Illinois andVirginia — ratified the ERA in recent years, butopponents argue that it is meaningless since theoriginal deadline was not met. Two years afterVirginia ratified the ERA in 2020, Republican Attorney General Jason Miyares said his state would haltlegal efforts to get the ratification recognized by thefederal government.Many ERA backers say it would bolster abortion rights, expand protections against discrimination in employment, health care and other fields,and broaden federal authority to legislate againstgender-based violence.The measure has encountered resistance fromRepublicans who argue that it contains vaguelanguage and isn’t needed because the 14th Amendment protects women by ensuring equal protectionunder the law.If the issue has appeared to recede in the publicconsciousness over the years, that may be because“most Americans think it’s in our Constitution”
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