US Equal Rights Amendment blocked again, a century after introduction

The U.S. Senate on Thursday fell short of the votes needed to enshrine equal rights for women in the Constitution, a century after a guarantee of gender equality was proposed in Congress.

With a 51-47 vote in favor, Senate Democrats and supporters were nine votes shy of the 60 needed for a resolution to clear the 100-member chamber’s filibuster hurdle.The resolution would have removed a 1982 deadline for state ratification that prevented the Equal Rights Amendment from going into effect. Three states — Nevada, Illinois and Virginia — approved it after 1982.Top Senate Democrat Chuck Schumer said the ERA was more important since the Supreme Court last year overturned the national right to abortion.”To the horror of hundreds of millions of American people, women in America have far fewer rights today than they did even a year ago,” Schumer said prior to Thursday’s vote.Groups opposed to abortion have argued the ERA could provide an avenue to making abortion a constitutional right, and the amendment’s failure is likely to increase attention on women’s rights in the 2024 White House campaign.

via Reuters