Call for NC to ratify Equal Rights Amendment renewed by legislative Democrats

Democrats made a renewed push Wednesday to have North Carolina ratify the Equal Rights Amendment, after attempts over the last three years have failed.

Bills filed in the Senate and House on Wednesday morning seek to add North Carolina to the list of 38 states that have supported adding the Equal Rights Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

Although that number meets the requirement for three-quarters of states to support the measure before it can be adopted as an amendment, complications with ratification deadlines in Congress, as well as several states’ rescinding their support, have kept it from moving forward.

Rep. Julie von Haefen, a Wake County Democrat and one of the primary sponsors for the House bill, said the measure is especially urgent following the U.S. Supreme Court’s reversal of Roe v. Wade, which had legalized abortion across the nation. She said codifying the ERA goes hand-in-hand with establishing reproductive rights for women across the state.

“We’ve seen that this country is moving backwards when it comes to women’s rights,” von Haefen said at a press conference. “We have recently seen our rights being stripped away, especially when it comes to our ability to make health care decisions for our own lives.”

Republican leaders in North Carolina have been hesitant to ratify the ERA, leaving bills to eventually die in committees. Von Haefen said she plans to initiate and extend discussions with Republican lawmakers to build support for the measure.

Although House and Senate leaders have not indicated how they might approach the bills in this session, Republican House Speaker Tim Moore of Cleveland County has previously stated he doesn’t expect bills aimed at codifying Roe v. Wade protections to reach committee hearings.

Protections for women

Democratic Sen. Natalie Murdock, who represents Durham County, told reporters that placing the Equal Rights Amendment in the Constitution would allow for North Carolina to enforce protections for women on cases related to gender violence, sexual harassment and discrimination based on pregnancy and motherhood, as well as guarantee equal pay.

Federal laws are already in place that are designed to protect women, such as the Violence Against Women Act and Equal Pay Act, but Murdock said their interpretation can vary across states. She said this makes passing the Equal Rights Amendment imperative in creating a streamlined, narrow system that guarantees equal protections for women across the nation.

“This variance occurs because there is no constitutional standard for applying legislation that specifically affects women in this country,” Murdock told reporters. “We need the language of the ERA to guarantee that these laws are interpreted and applied uniformly.”

The ERA states 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. The Congress shall have the power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisions of this article.”

The amendment was passed by Congress in 1972 with bipartisan support, but fell short of the three-quarters majority needed from states to adopt the amendment. Congress initially set a seven-year deadline to pass the measure, which was then extended by three years.

Campaigns by conservative activists in the 1970s, who expressed concerns that the amendment would pave the way for gender-neutral bathrooms and women being part of military combat, slowed further advances for the amendment.

Although passing the ERA lost momentum once the extended deadline passed in 1982, there has been renewed interest in passing the amendment due to a wave of women’s activism in recent years, such as the Women’s March on Washington in 2017 and the MeToo movement.

The most recent state to ratify the ERA was Virginia in January of 2020 following bipartisan support in the state’s legislature. In North Carolina, the measure is backed by Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper.

A recent study by Meredith College, in partnership with the ERA-NC Alliance, shows that 71.5 % of North Carolina voters support the passage of ERA legislation in the General Assembly, which legislators and activists point to as a step in the right direction.

“That’s why we’re sitting here in 2023 all just amazed that we’re still talking about ratifying the ERA,” said David McLennan, a political science professor and director of the Meredith Poll. “The support has long been there.”

The ERA-NC Alliance is working on outreach, prioritizing reaching younger generations to educate them on the amendment’s history and impact.